EVERETT — The past two weeks have been a roller coaster ride for the Everett Silvertips.
Friday night the coaster was back on the ascent.
Everett was lethal with its scoring chances as the Silvertips knocked off the Seattle Thunderbirds 5-1 in an ill-tempered affair at Comcast Arena.
The Tips have been all over the map with their results since the firing of coach Mark Ferner on Jan. 8. The Tips scored seven goals in their first game under interim head coach Garry Davidson, then were walloped 8-0 and 6-1 in the next two.
But Everett was back on the positive side of that ledger Friday. Kohl Bauml and Ryan Harrison rekindled their magic from the second half of last season, combining for three goals and three assists, and Austin Lotz played a strong game in goal, making 44 saves as the Tips won comfortably despite being outshot 45-23.
“I really liked the effort and the energy and the enthusiasm,” Davidson said.
“We were outmatched physically out there,” Davidson added. “They’re a big, strong team compared to us. But I was impressed with our guys. They stuck in there and continued to battle, despite being outsized a lot of the time.”
Joshua Winquist and Manraj Hayer also scored for Everett (18-26-0-2), which moved three points ahead of Seattle for seventh place in the Western Conference.
Jerret Smith scored the lone goal for Seattle (16-26-2-1), which has now dropped 15 straight. The goal was Smith’s first in the WHL.
Seattle overage goaltender Brandon Glover was unavailable Friday because of the flu, meaning 16-year-old rookie Danny Mumaugh was between the pipes for the T-birds. Mumaugh finished with 18 saves.
Everett had trouble getting out of its own end all night, which accounted for the shot differential. However, the Tips found the net when given the chance. Harrison finished off a smooth passing move in transition early in the second period to snap a 1-1 tie, sending the Tips on their way.
“It’s pretty easy to be up for it when there’s 7,300 fans here in this building and it’s rocking,” Harrison said.
“I think we were just getting shots from good places,” Harrison added. “We weren’t just shooting from everywhere, we were waiting until we had good places to shoot. And we buried our chances tonight, which was huge.”
Everett also had a good performance on special teams. The Tips have struggled on both the power play and the penalty kill of late, but Friday Everett scored twice on the power play and was a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. Lotz was a big part of the penalty kill’s success.
“I thought it was a real good team win for us,” Davidson said. “Our goaltender stopped the puck for us, our special teams contributed and we scored some even-strength goals. So all-in-all it was a real good team effort. But certainly Lotz was rock solid.”
Everett got off to a dream start when the Tips scored 2 minutes, 20 seconds into the game. Everett received an early power play, and while Harrison’s drive went wide, Bauml put in the rebound off the back board to stake the Tips to a 1-0 lead.
The Tips thought they’d made it 2-0 at 7:23, only to have the goal waived off, and Seattle scored less than two minutes later as Smith’s wrister from the point found its way through traffic and past Lotz, making it 1-1 at 9:02.
Seattle had several other scoring chances with the score tied, with Roberts Lipsbergs missing an open net. But it was Everett that broke out in the second period. Harrison converted on a tic-tac-toe passing move involving Bauml and Ty Mappin at 5:00. Bauml scored his second power-play goal at 10:06, putting a shot just through Mumaugh after a nice set-up by Harrison. Then Winquist made it 4-1 at 15:19, putting a rebound off the back boards over Mumaugh from a tight angle. Everett’s lead was never again threatened.
Slap shots
Everett welcomed defenseman Mirco Mueller back to the lineup. Mueller missed Tuesday’s 6-1 loss to Tri-City while participating in the CHL Top Prospects Game in Halifax, Nova Scotia. … Everett lost defenseman Austin Adam to injury when he took a hit into the boards midway through the first period. Davidson said Adam “had his bell rung.” … The Tips remained without overage defenseman Connor Cox because of a neck injury. He was joined in the stands by forwards Dawson Leedahl (knee) and Lucas Grayson (lower body). … Everett captain Ryan Murray, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery last week and is temporarily back in town, was honored before the game.
Silvertips 5, Thunderbirds 1
Seattle100—1
Everett131—5
First Period—1, Everett, Bauml 14 (Harrison, Mueller), 2:20 (pp). 2, Seattle, Smith 1 (Hickman), 9:02. Penalties—Wardley, Seattle (instigator-fighting-10-minute misconduct), 2:08; Betker, Everett (fighting), 2:08; Swenson, Seattle (fighting), 7:23; Oslanski, Everett (fighting), 7:23; Mappin, Everett (cross checking), 11:18; Kambeitz, Seattle (hooking), 14:09.
Second Period—3, Everett, Harrison 7 (Bauml, Mappin), 5:00. 4, Everett, Bauml 15 (Harrison, Oslanski), 10:06 (pp). 5, Everett, Winquist 18 (Oslanski, Hayer), 15:19. Penalties—Winquist, Everett (checking from behind), 7:06; Swenson, Seattle (goaltender interference), 9:36; Theodore, Seattle (roughing), 10:59; Bauml, Everett (roughing), 10:59; Hayer, Everett (checking from behind), 11:24; Wardley, Seattle (roughing), 17:35; Hauf, Seattle (roughing), 19:41; Harrison, Everett (roughing), 19:41.
Third Period—6, Everett, Hayer 9 (Winquist), 3:14. Penalties—Forsberg, Seattle (slashing), 7:10; Honey, Seattle (fighting), 12:45; Nikkel, Everett (fighting), 12:45; Foulk, Seattle (roughing-10-minute misconduct), 13:24; Oslanski, Everett (unsportsmanlike conduct), 13:24; Winquist, Everett (roughing), 13:24; Wardley, Seattle (unsportsmanlike conduct-10-minute misconduct), 16:27; Harrison, Everett (interference), 16:27; Hickman, Seattle (fighting), 19:08; Aasman, Everett (fighting), 19:08; Green, Seattle (fighting), 19:56; Soumelidis, Everett (fighting), 19:56.
Shots on goal—Seattle 13-16-16—45. Everett 8-11-4—23. Power-play opportunities—Seattle 0 of 4. Everett 2 of 5.
Goalies—Seattle, Mumaugh 0-4-0-0 (23 shots, 18 saves). Everett, Lotz 10-14-0-1 (45 shots, 44 saves).
A—7,326.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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