Silvertips crumble late again

EVERETT — Hockey coaches tend to speak about their teams building an identity.

The Everett Silvertips are doing just that. Unfortunately for the Tips, it’s the type of identity no team wants to be associated with.

Everett surrendered yet another third-period lead as the Prince George Cougars scored the game’s final three goals — all in the third period — to beat the Tips 3-1 at Xfinity Arena.

It was another demoralizing defeat for an Everett team that’s specialized in losing third-period leads the past month, particularly on home ice. In the Tips’ past 14 games, Everett has given up the lead five times after taking a lead into the third period. The Tips twice managed to salvage the game in shootouts, but the three crushing defeats all came at home — Friday night, Nov. 8 against Spokane and Nov. 30 against Kootenay.

Jansen Harkins, Tate Olson and Chase Witala scored the goals for Prince George (17-15-0-0), which won its fourth straight. Ty Edmonds earned the win in goal with 26 saves.

Kohl Bauml scored the lone goal for Everett (18-8-3-1). Austin Lotz took the loss in net, making 17 saves.

Everett, which played without leading scorer Nikita Scherbak because of illness, seemed to have the game in control. The Tips held Prince George to just 10 shots on goal through the first two periods while taking a 1-0 lead into the third.

But while Everett wasn’t allowing any scoring chances to the Cougars, the Tips weren’t generating many themselves. Then in the third period Prince George picked up the pace, and the Tips couldn’t keep up.

Harkins tied it just 1 minute, 30 seconds into the third. He and Brad Morrison cycled the puck in the right corner, with Morrison eventually feathering the puck into the path of Harkins heading toward goal. The Everett defender was in position, but didn’t see the puck, and Harkins was able to get the puck and wrist a shot under Lotz to make it 1-1.

The Cougars then took the inevitable lead with 5:50 remaining. The Tips were long shifted with inexperienced defensemen on the ice, and eventually the puck was worked to Olson at the center point. Olson wound up and fired a slap shot through traffic and into the top corner to give the Cougars the lead.

Everett pulled Lotz for an extra attacker to try to get the tying goal back, but Witala stole the puck behind the Tips net and wrapped it into the unguarded goal to finish Everett off.

There were several chances at both ends of the ice early in the game, but it wasn’t until the Tips received a lengthy five-on-three power play late in the first period that the ice was finally broken. Noah Juulsen’s blast from the point rebounded into the slot, where Bauml put it past a downed Edmonds to give Everett a 1-0 lead at 18:00.

Scoring chances were few and far between in the second period. The best came on the period’s first shift as the Tips broke two-on-one into the Prince George zone. Brayden Low made a move and got Edmonds down on the ice, but Edmonds reached out with his glove and denied Low at the near post to keep it 1-0 heading into the third.

Slap shots

Everett welcomed winger Dawson Leedahl back to the lineup Friday. Leedahl had been out since Oct. 18 because of a knee injury. Winger Graham Millar also returned after missing Tuesday’s 4-3 shootout victory at Tri-City because of illness. … In addition to Scherbak, Everett played without defensemen Ben Betker (concussion) and Tristen Pfeifer (upper body) and winger Logan Aasman (upper body) because of injuries. … Prince George was without winger David Soltes, who has joined up with Slovakia’s team for the World Junior Hockey Championships. The Cougars were also without defenseman Sam Ruopp, who was serving the first game of a two-game suspension for his kneeing major penalty in Tuesday’s 4-3 home victory over Saskatoon.

Cougars 3, Silvertips 1

Prince George003—3

Everett100—1

First Period—1, Everett, Bauml 11 (Juulsen, Nikolishin), 18:00 (pp). Penalties—Cochrane, Everett (interference), 2:54; Erricson, Prince George (boarding), 3:02; Macklin, Prince George (roughing), 17:09; Pochiro, Prince George (cross checking), 17:34; Harkins, Prince George (fighting), 19:50; Leedahl, Everett (fighting), 19:50.

Second Period—no goals. Penalties—Laurencelle, Everett (holding), 2:56; Braid, Prince George (tripping), 4:57.

Third Period—2, Prince George, Harkins 10 (Morrison), 1:30. 3, Prince George, Witala 17, 18:58 (en). Penalties—Leedahl, Everett (slashing), 5:34.

Shots on goal—Prince George 3-7-10—20. Everett 10-10-7—27. Power-play opportunities—Prince George 0 of 3. Everett 1 of 4.

Goalies—Prince George, Edmonds 15-11-0-0 (27 shots, 26 saves). Everett, Lotz 14-6-1-1 (19 shots, 17 saves).

A—4,321.

Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.

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