KENNEWICK — The Everett Silvertips face a road-heavy schedule during the final month of the WHL season.
Perhaps the Tips have figured out how to deal with that situation.
Everett won its fifth straight road game Tuesday night, knocking off the Tri-City Americans 3-2 to stretch its overall win streak to three.
Parker Stanfield scored what proved to be the decisive goal late in third period on a penalty shot as Everett took over sole possession of sixth place in the Western Conference.
The streak of road victories represents a dramatic turnaround for the Tips. Everett had won just six of its 23 road contests prior to the win streak.
Manraj Hayer and Josh Winquist also scored for Everett (26-25-5-4), which pulled two points ahead of Prince George for sixth. Prince George fell 6-3 to Portland at home Tuesday.
Kent Simpson, making his 15th straight start in goal for Everett, made 31 saves. For Simpson it was his 50th career win for the Tips.
David Conrad and Zach Yuen scored for Tri-City (38-18-2-2), which dropped its third straight. Cam Gorchynski, making his first start of the season, stopped 20 shots in net for the Americans.
The game’s start was delayed an hour. Everett’s bus was late arriving because of snowy road conditions in Snoqualmie pass.
Everett was clinging to a 2-1 lead throughout the third period when Stanfield was brought down on a breakaway by Tri-City defenseman Tyler Schmidt. Stanfield was awarded a penalty shot, and he beat Gorchynski with his shot to give the Tips a two-goal cushion with 4 minutes, 12 seconds remaining.
That goal proved crucial as Tri-City pulled back within one at 17:58. Shortly after Gorchynski was pulled for an extra attacker, Yuen put in a rebound on an Adam Hughesman shot to make it 3-2. However, the Tips managed to salt away the rest of the clock to hold on for victory.
Everett opened the scoring 5:31 into the game. The Tips broke two-on-one, and Hayer finished off Ryan Murray’s feed to make it 1-0.
The Tips had several other chances, with Scott MacDonald drawing iron. But it was the Americans who found the net next. Kruise Reddick’s shot was saved into the air by Simpson. The puck landed behind Simpson and ended up across the goal line. After a video review the goal was upheld, and Conrad was given credit.
Everett regained the lead 6:54 into the second. Some good pressure from the Tips allowed Winquist to backhand a loose puck past Gorchynski to make it 2-1.
Tri-City ramped up the pressure later in the second, but Simpson and the Tips were able to keep the puck out of the net to take the lead into the third.
Silvertips 3, Americans 2
Everett 1 1 1—3
Tri-City 1 0 1—2
First Period—1, Everett, Hayer 2 (Murray, Maxwell), 5:31. 2, Tri-City, Conrad 8 (Reddick), 12:04. Penalties–Moline, Tri-City (hold stick), 14:48; Schmidt, Tri-City (kneeing), 18:48.
Second Period—3, Everett, Winquist 7 (Cumiskey, MacDonald), 6:54. Penalties–Rissanen, Everett (holding), 12:32; Feser, Tri-City (interference), 12:32; Yadlowski, Everett (interference), 17:15.
Third Period—4, Everett, Stanfield 11, 15:48 (ps). 5, Tri-City, Yuen 6 (Rankin, Hughesman), 17:58. Penalties–Feser, Tri-City (slashing), 9:43; Suer, Everett (hooking), 10:44; penalties at 19:58 not available at press time.
Shots on goal—Everett 9-6-8–23. Tri-City 14-11-8–33. Power-play opportunities–Everett 0 of 4. Tri-City 0 of 2.
Goalies—Everett, Simpson 20-18-5-4 (33 shots, 31 saves). Tri-City, Gorchynski 0-1-0-0 (23 shots, 20 saves).
A—3,654.
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