EVERETT — It may be the first of many WHL hat tricks for Patrick Bajkov.
Then again, it might not even be No. 1 for the youthful Everett Silvertips winger.
Bajkov was credited with three goals Friday night as the Silvertips thrashed the Vancouver Giants 7-1 in their homecoming contest at Xfinity Arena.
However, after the game Bajkov was convinced one of the goals is going to get taken away.
“It was good,” Bajkov said about the hat trick. “I might have to give the credit on the first one to the point shot by (Tristen) Pfeifer, I’m sure we’ll take a look at that. It was a good game, a good win for us all around.”
Everett, playing its first game following an epic stretch of 12 of its previous 14 games on the road, settled right back in at home. The Tips led 3-0 less than 13 minutes into the game, then pulled away late.
Ivan Nikolishin added a goal and three assists, Carson Stadnyk had two goals and an assist, and Kevin Davis also found the net for Everett (31-14-3-1), which rebounded well following its two losses at Kelowna last weekend.
Austin Lotz allowed a soft goal, but played extremely well after that, finishing with 28 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Tips, who were beginning a stretch of 11 of 16 at home.
Former Silvertip Zane Jones scored the lone goal for Vancouver (20-28-1-1), which lost for the eighth time in its past nine games. Cody Porter made 23 saves in net for the Giants.
Porter’s chief tormentor was Bajkov, who appears destined for big things in his Everett career. The late-birthdate 17-year-old now has 20 goals in his second season with the Tips. He scored Everett’s first two goals — the first is the one under dispute — then finished off his hat trick midway through the third period with true goal-scorer’s move.
“I think we had a good game,” Bajkov said. “We started off well, that’s always important for our team. We came back home, played a good game in front of our fans who really got behind us, and I thought we finished off well.”
Everett started the game in dominating fashion, jumping out to a 3-0 lead. The Tips needed just 1:39 to get on the scoreboard as Pfeifer wristed a shot from the center point that deflected off traffic in front — allegedly Bajkov — and past Porter too stake Everett to an early lead. The Tips made it 2-0 on the power play at 9:33 as Bajkov’s one-timer from the left circle got through Porter. Then at 12:23 it was 3-0 as the Tips took advantage of a turnover in the offensive zone, moving the puck to Nikolishin all alone in front, and Nikolishin made a nifty move to his backhand to tuck the puck past Porter.
“I think it was all preparation,” Bajkov said about the reason for Everett’s fast start. “We came in this morning knowing we had a good team coming over to play us and we just wanted to jump in front of them as early as we could.”
Everett was in complete control, but Vancouver was gifted a goal at 16:08 to stem the Tips’ momentum. Jones, who began the season with Everett, just spun and fired the puck goalward from the left corner. The puck somehow squeezed past Lotz’s skate at the post and in, cutting Everett’s lead to two.
Vancouver came out hitting to start the second, turning the momentum and outshooting Everett 18-8 in the period. However, the Tips survived the onslaught, then took control with two goals 34 seconds apart later in the period. Everett scored its second power-play goal of the game at 13:39 as Stadnyk poked home a rebound of Noah Juulsen’s shot from the point. Then on the next shift the Tips put together a fluid passing move in transition, with Davis eventually finishing off a centering feed from Stadnyk to make it 5-1.
In the third period the only thing left to determine was whether Bajkov would complete his hat trick. He did so at 11:12 when he wriggled free to cut across goal, skate around Porter and score to make it 6-1.
Slap shots
Nikolishin had been a doubt for Friday’s game as he did not practice this week because of illness. … Vancouver was without goaltender Payton Lee because of an upper-body injury. With Lee not available, the Giants called up Griffin Baillie to serve as the emergency back-up. The Giants were also missing overage winger Matt Bellerive because of illness.
Silvertips 7, Giants 1
Vancouver 1 0 0 —1
Everett 3 2 2 —7
First Period—1, Everett, Bajkov 18 (Pfeifer, Nikolishin), 1:39. 2, Everett, Bajkov 19 (Juulsen, Nikolishin), 9:33 (pp). 3, Everett, Nikolishin 13 (Bajkov, Fonteyne), 12:23. 4, Vancouver, Jones 23 (Menell, Popoff), 16:08. Penalties—Osipov, Vancouver (hooking), 6:18; Thrower, Vancouver (slashing), 9:19; Houck, Vancouver (roughing), 17:15; Juulsen, Everett (roughing), 17:15.
Second Period—5, Everett, Stadnyk 19 (Juulsen, Nikolishin), 13:39 (pp). 6, Everett, Davis 3 (Stadnyk, Bauml), 14:13. Penalties—Odgers, Vancouver (slashing), 9:40; Juulsen, Everett (charging), 9:40; Ronning, Vancouver (kneeing), 12:57; Odgers, Vancouver (fighting), 17:20; Low, Everett (fighting), 17:20.
Third Period—7, Everett, Bajkov 20 (Fonteyne), 11:12. 8, Everett, Stadnyk 20 (MacDonald, Juulsen), 14:50. Penalties—Fonteyne, Everett (interference), 4:22; Thrower, Vancouver (roughing), 15:36; Foster, Vancouver (tripping), 16:59; Bajkov, Everett (embellishment), 16:59; Pfeifer, Everett (charging), 18:34; Houck, Vancouver (10-minute misconduct), 18:34; Geertsen, Vancouver (10-minute misconduct), 19:21; Baer, Vancouver (roughing), 19:21; Juulsen, Everett (roughing), 19:21; Davis, Everett (holding), 19:58.
Shots on goal—Vancouver 6-18-5—29. Everett 10-8-12—30. Power-play opportunities—Vancouver 0 of 3. Everett 2 of 4.
Goalies—Vancouver, Porter 9-10-1-1 (30 shots, 23 saves). Everett, Lotz 21-10-1-1 (29 shots, 28 saves).
A—5,912.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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