Published: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Chiefs outshooting Silvertips by wide margin
Through two games, Spokane has 40 more shots on goal than the Tips.
By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer
EVERETT -- The Spokane Chiefs have put the Everett Silvertips back on their heels in their first-round playoff series.
And perhaps the place where that's illustrated best -- besides the final score -- is on the shot clock.
In the first two games of the best-of-seven series, won by Spokane 5-2 and 4-1, the Chiefs nearly doubled up the Tips in shots on goal, outshooting Everett 89-49.
The discrepancy is a concern for Everett. However, the Tips say the whole story can't be told just from the shot totals.
"I think it's pretty key, but I don't think you want to pay too much attention to it," Everett center Zach Hamill said of the shot totals. "You want to throw as many shots on net as you can, it's how you score goals. But I think it's just as important to know your team's throwing pucks at net and then going hard to net for the rebound."
Spokane outshooting Everett is nothing new. The Chiefs outshot the Tips in each of their eight regular season meetings, and in some of those games the shot totals were as lopsided as they've been so far in the playoffs.
"They shoot from everywhere," Everett coach John Becanic said. "We judge things on scoring chances and the scoring chances have been right around where they've been the entire 10 games (against Spokane). So the scoring chances against haven't changed. We certainly haven't had as many scoring chances for as in the past."
This is not a new phenomen for the Tips. The one-sided shot totals have been a problem for Everett since before the playoffs began. In the final five games of the regular season, all losses, the Tips were outshot four times, and the combined shot totals from those games was 207-147 in favor of the opposition.
It's no coincidence that in the past seven games the Tips have scored just eight goals.
"I don't think it's just one thing," Hamill said of Everett's offensive woes. "I think we have to play in their zone more, we've played in our zone a little too much. But at the same time they're playing some good hockey right now. They have some forwards who are high-quality players, not just in the league but in the world.
"We haven't played our best hockey and they've played some really good hockey, and the combination of both doesn't help our team offensively."
Foul play: Another area where Spokane holds a substantial advantage in the series is in the penalty box.
Everett gave Spokane 14 power plays in the first two games and received just six of its own. That discrepancy is one of the factors in why the Chiefs have had an easier time generating offense than the Tips. It also indicates Everett hasn't yet mastered the emotional control Becanic was seeking during this series.
"I think we've played good five-on-five," left wing Clayton Bauer said. "But discipline and letting our emotions get the best of us definitely is taking a toll on our game. We're playing in the box so long it's hard to generate a lot of offense."
Becanic admits that the Tips haven't played with the required discipline to win the series. However, he also believes the Chiefs have been let off a little easy by the officials.
"I certainly thought both games Spokane could have had more against them," Becanic said. "I think they had at least four goalie interference penalties (which weren't called). Spokane had nine goalie interference penalties in the last 20 regular season games, we didn't have nine all year. You can already see their thing is to take away (Leland) Irving. I've seen three or four times where they ran through the crease and could have avoided hitting Irv and they didn't.
"You address that to the league and the league looks into it."
Slap shots: Spokane has lived up to its pre-series billing of having tremendous depth up front. Seven different Chief forwards found the net in the first two games of the series. ... Everett defenseman Taylor Ellington sat out practice Monday, though it was a scheduled day off for him. Ellington is still working himself back up to full speed after missing the final 21 games of the regular season because of a foot injury. ... Former Tips left wing Ondrej Fiala observed Monday's practice. Fiala was traded to Saskatoon at the beginning of the season, and his season is over as the Blades missed the playoffs.
Nick Patterson's Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
|
|Contact Us
|Advertiser Services
|Home Delivery
|Newsstand Locations
|Classifieds
|Feedback
|About the Company
|Work@the Herald
|Site Map