TALKING POINTS
Well, this is the kind of wild game that can happen on the last day before the Christmas break.
Sure, there were a lot of goals scored, some of which were nice. And it made for quite the spectacle — an early Christmas gift for the fans as they more than got their money’s worth tonight.
But for the most part this game was not well played. There was bad team defense, shoddy puck control, shaky goaltending, questionable decision making. Even the officials seemed to have been afflicted by the holidayitis as they had a bad game, too. I feel relieved for the coaches that they have nine days to recover from this one.
However, while there may have been 39 players out there who already had one foot on the plane flight back home, there was one who was still fully present: Kohl Bauml. Everett’s captain gave a captain’s performance, and he almost single-handedly willed Everett to victory tonight.
The Tips controlled play through two periods, but lapses allowed the Royals to hang around. Then Tips goaltender Austin Lotz had a period to forget as Victoria scored three times in the first seven minutes of the third to go up 6-4 on three goals I suspect Lotz would like back (he would later redeem himself in the shootout).
But Bauml had already been the best player on the ice by some margin at that point, and he reaffirmed that by scoring twice to complete his hat trick — the second of his career — and tie the score back up.
Even the shootout was crazy. Victoria thought it had won when it was ruled Coleman Vollrath had stopped Carson Stadnyk’s attempt in the third round, and the Royals came off the bench to celebrate. But the officials called to the video booth and it was determined the puck had crossed the goal line, keeping the shootout alive.
That gave Bauml the chance to be the shootout hero, too. Lotz denied Dante Hannoun, and Bauml was summoned with a chance to win it. He made a great high-speed move to his forehand to end the game and send the Tips home happy for the holidays. Everett is 5-1 in shootouts.
The Tips thus find themselves in first place in the U.S. Division at the break, three points ahead of Portland. Everett has three games in hand.
TURNING POINT
Everett was up 2-0 and completely controlling the first period when Vollrath made an unbelievable glove save from his back to deny Nikita Scherbak’s backhander. At 3-0 I suspect the Royals, who were playing without arguably their three best players as well as their head coach, would have shut it down. Instead, Victoria scored on the next shift, then again with 7.5 seconds remaining in the period, and we had a game on our hands.
THREE STARS
First star: Bauml. Three goals and the shootout winner, that was the best game I’ve seen him play in four seasons as a Silvertip. He wore the “C” proudly tonight.
Second star: Tyler Soy, Victoria. Two goals and one assist, both his goals were crucial game-tying tallies.
Third star: Cole MacDonald, Everett. Two goals and one assist, struggled some on defense, but made up for it offensively.
The Herald’s honorable mention: Chaz Reddekopp, Victoria. One goal and three assists, nearly doubled his season scoring output in one night.
BOX SCORE
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