EVERETT — Kailer Yamamoto will remember his first WHL goal as something special.
The Everett Silvertips will remember it as a kick in the gut.
The Spokane Chiefs rookie’s first career goal snapped a tie with just 12.1 seconds remaining, giving the Chiefs a 5-4 victory over the Tips on Wednesday night at Xfinity Arena.
Everett seemed well on its way toward its fifth overtime game in 10 outings this season. But with OT looming, Yamamoto flattened the Tips with the late game winner, making his first goal in the WHL extra memorable.
“It was exciting, I still can’t believe it,” the 16-year-old Spokane native said. “It’s a dream come true.”
The Tips, unsurprisingly, had a different take.
“Of course, when you’re that close to at least getting a point it’s tough to take,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “But we didn’t deserve a point, so we got what we deserved. We got outworked. They competed way harder than us most of the night.”
Calder Brooks, Jacob Cardiff, Liam Stewart and Adam Helewka also scored for Spokane (5-2-3-0), which became the first team to defeat Everett in regulation this season. Garret Hughson earned the win in goal with 25 saves.
Brayden Low, Cole MacDonald, Kohl Bauml and Nikita Scherbak scored for Everett (6-1-2-1). Austin Lotz finished with 33 saves in net for the Tips.
Everett appeared en route to making it 10 straight games earning at least a point when Scherbak pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot into the top corner with 8:54 remaining, tying it at 4-4.
But with the finish line in sight, the Tips stumbled and crashed to the ice. Everett was unable to clear the puck from its own zone, allowing Yamamoto to take the puck off the right boards, bear down on goal, then put a backhander past Lotz’s glove to effectively end the game.
Constantine wasn’t pleased with any part of the sequence that led to the game-winning goal.
“You can’t change when the puck is on your side of the red line, and our line changed, so that was the biggest thing I saw,” Constantine said. “Then when our D got the puck, when you don’t have play your best play is not to make a play, and we tried to bat it out along the boards when we could have just eaten the puck. So I thought it was poorly played both from what our defense tried to do with the puck, and the fact our forwards changed was a bigger contributor to it — we only had two D on the ice when they scored, we had no forwards out there.”
But Everett’s loss was hardly down to that one bad moment. The Chiefs consistently outhustled the Tips to loose pucks, and on 50-50 plays Spokane routinely came away with the puck. Those effort plays kept Everett scrambling throughout — there was even one stretch during an Everett power play where it seemed like the Chiefs were the team playing with an extra man.
“We weren’t mentally or emotionally attached enough to the game to win,” Constantine lamented. “We were like that Friday night at Tri-City (a 5-4 shootout loss), so we’ve been a little like that two of our last three games.”
The first period started well enough for Everett as the Tips opened the scoring 4:26 in. Scherbak dug a puck out behind the Spokane net and whipped a pass to Low, who was streaking down the middle after coming off the bench. Low backhanded the puck under Hughson to give Everett a 1-0 lead.
But Spokane outworked the Tips for much of the period and banged in three rebound goals to take a 3-1 lead. Brooks tied it at 6:18 following Jason Fram’s shot through traffic. Then Cardiff scored at 7:55 and Stewart at 13:50 after Lotz kicked out juicy rebounds.
Everett stopped the bleeding while on the power play at 17:47 as MacDonald put a shot from the left point in off the crossbar to cut the deficit to 3-2.
The Tips then tied it 6:57 into the second period. A Spokane giveaway gave Graham Millar a run at goal, and although Hughson denied Millar, Bauml followed up to put in the rebound and make it 3-3.
However, the Chiefs again outworked the Tips the remainder of the period and regained the lead on the power play at 16:22, Helewka picking out the top corner from the left circle to make it 4-3.
Slap shots
There was no definitive diagnosis on Tips winger Dawson Leedahl’s knee injury Wednesday. Tuesday’s MRI was inconclusive, requiring a second MRI Wednesday. The best-case scenario has Leedahl missing four-to-six weeks, while the worst-case scenario has him sitting out four-to-six months. … Everett’s shortage of forwards, caused by Leedahl’s injury and the trade of Tyler Sandhu to Red Deer, meant the Tips used defenseman Carter Cochrane at forward Wednesday. Cochrane was used at forward even through winger Nik Malenica, who has yet to play this season, was available.
Chiefs 5, Silvertips 4
Spokane 3 1 1 — 5
Everett 2 1 1 — 4
First Period—1, Everett, Low 2 (Scherbak), 4:26. 2, Spokane, Brooks 3 (Chartier, Fram), 6:18. 3, Spokane, Cardiff 1 (Miske, Bechtold), 7:55. 4, Spokane, Stewart 6 (Ke. Yamamoto), 13:50. 5, Everett, MacDonald 3 (Davis, Aasman), 17:47 (pp). Penalties—Ka. Yamamoto, Spokane (holding), 16:07.
Second Period—6, Everett, Bauml 5 (Millar, Stadnyk), 6:57. 7, Spokane, Helewka 3 (Sozanski, Helgesen), 16:22 (pp). Penalties—MacDonald, Everett (tripping), 10:32; Millar, Everett (hooking), 15:26; Fiala, Spokane (hooking), 17:05.
Third Period—8, Everett, Scherbak 5, 11:06. 9, Spokane, Ka. Yamamoto 1, 19:47. Penalties—Bobyk, Spokane (interference), 2:51; Fiala, Spokane (tripping), 7:05.
Shots on goal—Spokane 12-15-11—38. Everett 8-7-14—29. Power-play opportunities—Spokane 1 of 2. Everett 1 of 4.
Goalies—Spokane, Hughson 5-1-3-0 (29 shots, 25 saves). Everett, Lotz 5-1-1-1 (38 shots, 33 saves).
A—2,867.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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