KENT — The Everett Silvertips’ longest road trip of the season got off to an inauspicious start Tuesday night.
Everett suffered a defeat and possible injury in falling 4-2 to the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Keegan Kolesar scored twice and Ethan Bear added a goal and two assists to lead a short-handed Seattle team. The T-birds played without star defenseman Shea Theodore (at the World Junior Hockey Championships), star center Mathew Barzal (injured) and No. 1 goaltender Taran Kozun (rested), yet still won its fourth straight.
Lane Pederson scored the other goal for Seattle (17-15-2-2), while Danny Mumaugh earned the win in net with 28 saves.
Dawson Leedahl and Nikita Scherbak scored for Everett (21-11-3-1), which departed directly from the game for Saskatchewan for the team’s six-game swing through the WHL’s East Division. Austin Lotz finished with 21 saves in net for the Tips.
Adding injury to insult, the Tips lost defensemen Kevin Davis and Tristen Pfeifer to apparent injury as both left the game in the second period and did not return. Their status for the rest of the road trip was unknown.
Seattle struck first 14 minutes, 55 seconds into the first period. Sahvan Khaira’s pass found Pederson down low, and Pederson converted to give the T-birds a 1-0 lead.
Everett answered less than a minute later. Kohl Bauml sent the puck out front from the corner, and Leedahl put a backhander past Mumaugh from in close to knot it at 1-1 at 15:42.
Seattle regained the lead on the power play 7:32 into the second period, Kolesar just getting a rebound past Lotz to make it 2-1.
Seattle made it a tough task by scoring its third just 1:36 into the third period. Everett had scoring chances at one end that were denied by Mumaugh. The T-birds immediately headed the other way two-on-one, and Kolesar converted Ryan Gropp’s feed to make it 3-1.
Everett got itself back into the game at 8:30 as Scherbak sniped a shot past Mumaugh on the power play. But the Tips hindered their comeback chances by giving Seattle a five-on-three advantage, and Bear’s one-timer restored Seattle’s two-goal lead at 10:57.
Thunderbirds 4, Silvertips 2
Everett 1 0 1 — 2
Seattle 1 1 2 — 4
First Period—1, Seattle, Pederson 6 (Khaira, E. Bear), 14:55. 2, Everett, Leedahl 2 (Bauml), 15:42. Penalties—Pfeifer, Everett (interference), 1:54; Volcan, Seattle (tripping), 8:12.
Second Period—3, Seattle, Kolesar 12 (Hickman, E. Bear), 7:32 (pp). Penalties—Wardley, Seattle (slashing), 3:38; Low, Everett (interference), 5:51; MacDonald, Everett (fighting), 9:48; Osterman, Seattle (fighting), 9:48; Hauf, Seattle (elbowing), 17:48.
Third Period—4, Seattle, Kolesar 13 (Gropp, Hickman), 1:36. 5, Everett, Scherbak 18 (Betker), 8:30 (pp). 6, Seattle, E. Bear 9 (Smith, Kolesar), 10:57 (pp). Penalties—Hickman, Seattle (slashing), 4:34; Kolesar, Seattle (kneeing), 6:53; Stadnyk, Everett (goaltender interference), 9:26; Leedahl, Everett (checking from behind), 10:22.
Shots on goal—Everett 9-12-9—30. Seattle 8-9-8—25. Power-play opportunities—Everett 1 of 5. Seattle 2 of 4.
Goalies—Everett, Lotz 16-8-1-1 (25 shots, 21 saves). Seattle, Mumaugh 2-4-0-0 (30 shots, 28 saves).
A—6,219.
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