Published: Thursday, February 21, 2008
Chiefs' turn to win shootout
By Nick Patterson Herald Writer
EVERETT -- Turnabout is fair play.
Five days earlier the Everett Silvertips earned two points against the Spokane Chiefs in that hockey crapshoot better known as the shootout.
This time it was Spokane's turn.
Ondrej Roman scored the deciding goal in the tiebreaker, and the Chiefs defeated the Silvertips 4-3 Wednesday night at Comcast Arena.
Roman's goal gave Spokane a 2-1 shootout victory as the Chiefs snapped Everett's five-game winning streak.
"Obviously any time you're going into a shootout you're just flipping a coin and whoever calls heads wins, right?" Spokane coach Bill Peters said. "Last week it was their turn to win in a shootout, tonight it was ours."
Trevor Glass, Chris Bruton and David Rutherford scored in regulation for Spokane, which crept within two points of Tri-City for first place in the U.S. Division. Judd Blackwater and Roman scored in the shootout and Dustin Tokarski made 31 saves.
Shane Harper scored twice to lead Everett (34-25-0-3), which battled back from a two-goal deficit to earn its point. Zach Hamill added a goal and two assists, Kyle Beach scored in the shootout and Leland Irving finished with 38 saves.
Everett had won its previous seven games that ended in either overtime or a shootout. The Tips are 4-3 in shootouts this season.
Although they ended up on the losing end of the shootout this time, the Tips were encouraged by Wednesday's performance. When Everett won 3-2 in a shootout against Spokane last Friday the Tips prevailed despite being outshot 55-30.
But this time Everett played Spokane far more evenly -- the shots were just 41-34 in favor of the Chiefs -- despite missing three key defensemen, and the Tips had chances to win it in both regulation and overtime.
"We found ourselves down and it's a really good sign that we came back from a two goal deficit," said Harper, who scored the tying goal early in the third period. "It shows maturity in our team. We didn't get it in the shootout, but it was a close one, so what can you do?"
All three of Everett's goals were scored on the power play as the Tips went 3-for-5 with the advantage.
"I thought we were a little better last week than we were tonight," Peters said. "Last week we were short-handed five times and we found a way to kill them all. Tonight our penalty kill struggled for sure and allowed to get them back in the game."
Meanwhile, the Tips had to overcome a terrible 28-second span early in the second period that saw a 1-1 game turn into a 3-1 Chiefs lead in a flash.
"We had a 30-second lapse of two stupid plays, then got back on our heels a bit in the second," Tips head coach John Becanic said. "But I thought we kept following through and kept working.
"It was definitely a better performance," Becanic added. "There were some issues -- as I said good teams bring out your weaknesses and they're a good team. I liked how we battled and I didn't think there was a whole lot of change in our play. From the start of the game right to the shootout I thought we played relatively aggressive. We didn't sit back and wait for our opportunities, we went after them."
Everett grabbed the lead on the power play 8 minutes, 43 seconds into the game. Hamill found Harper cutting through the middle, and Harper casually stickhandled his way around Tokarski to give the Tips a 1-0 lead.
Spokane tied it up with a power-play goal of its own at 15:07. Glass's shot from the point pinballed off multiple bodies before finding the corner, making it 1-1.
Spokane then took control with two goals in 28 seconds early in the second period. First, at 2:35, Bruton took the puck from behind the net out front and slipped it under Irving to make it 2-1. Then at 3:03 Rutherford was released on a breakaway, where he beat Irving with a move to his backhand to give the Chiefs a sudden two-goal advantage.
Everett gave itself hope going into the third period with a five-on-three marker. Dan Gendur's backdoor pass found Hamill, who gathered the puck and scored at 14:40 to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Then Harper tied it at 6:37 of the third period, cutting across the slot with the puck and firing a shot into the top corner.
Both teams had chances to win in overtime, but both goaltenders came up big.
Slap shots: Everett was back down to five defensemen again as Graham Potuer received a two-game suspension earlier Wednesday. The suspension came under supplemental discipline for his hit on Seattle defenseman Steve Chaffin on Saturday that left Chaffin with a concussion. There was no penalty called on the play. Potuer joined injured defensemen Taylor Ellington (foot) and Mike Alexander (shoulder) in the stands. ... There was a moment of silence prior to the game in rememberance of Mickey Renaud. Renaud, the captain of the Ontario Hockey League's Windsor Spitfires, died suddenly from unknown causes Monday. ... Spokane had a pair of players back in the lineup. Center Mitch Wahl returned from a two-game suspension, while center Tyler Johnson returned from the flu.
Nick Patterson's Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
Chiefs 4, Silvertips 3 (SO)
Spokane 1 2 0 0 -- 4
Everett 1 1 1 0 -- 3
@5. NHL box :Spokane won shootout 2-1
First Period--1, Everett, Harper 13 (Hamill), 8:43 (pp). 2, Spokane, Glass 8 (Spurgeon, Wahl), 15:07 (pp). Penalties--McCrae, Spokane (interference), 7:48; Burt, Everett (clipping), 15:03; Beach, Everett (roughing), 16:11; Gendur, Everett (elbowing), 19:50.
Second Period--3, Spokane, Bruton 23 (Wahl), 2:35. 4, Spokane, Rutherford 15 (Blackwater), 3:03. 5, Everett, Hamill 25 (Gendur, Harty), 14:40 (pp). Penalties--Bruton, Spokane (fighting), 7:31; Crowley, Everett (fighting), 7:31; Falk, Spokane (unsportsmanlike conduct-roughing), 12:48; Beach, Everett (unsportsmanlike conduct), 12:48; Spurgeon, Spokane (cross checking), 14:11; Harty, Everett (hold stick), 18:53; Roman, Spokane (interference), 19:39.
Third Period--6, Everett, Harper 14 (Gendur, Hamill), 6:37 (pp). Penalties--Falk, Spokane (tripping), 5:27; Glass, Spokane (slashing), 10:01; Harty, Everett (cross checking) 10:01.
Overtime--No goals. Penalties--None.
Shootout--Everett 1 (Beach G, Gendur NG, Harper NG); Spokane 2 (Blackwater G, Bowman NG, Roman G).
Shots on goal--Spokane 13-16-7-5--41. Everett 10-13-7-4--34. Power-play opportunities--Spokane 1 of 5. Everett 3 of 5. Goalies--Spokane, Tokarski 25-8-0-3 (34 shots, 31 saves). Everett, Irving 24-21-0-3 (41 shots, 38 saves). A--5,554.
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