EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips earned a much-needed win Sunday evening, and they did so in a much-needed manner.
But it was anything but comfortable.
Everett managed to salvage what could have been a lost weekend by beating the Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-4 at Xfinity Arena.
Everett came into the game reeling, having lost three straight for the first time this season. The first two of those defeats came in heartbreaking fashion as the Tips gave up the tying goal late in the third period, and that was followed by Saturday’s 7-0 drubbing at Seattle. Another loss would have made the Tips’ lead atop the WHL’s U.S. Division that much more tenuous.
But not only did the Tips stop the bleeding by winning Sunday, the nature of the victory reversed a worrying trend. Four times in the previous two weeks Everett allowed a late goal in regulation when leading by one, all at home. The Tips again found themselves in the same situation Sunday with a one-goal lead late in a home game, and closing it out with a minimum of drama was critical for Everett’s psyche.
“Sometimes when you’re losing it gets in your head a little bit,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “I thought our guys did a great job tonight because Lethbridge was 6-3-1-0 in their last 10 games, and on top of that the game had the same feel of recent games, of getting a lead and giving up a lead. That’s psychologically taxing, so solving that and getting a victory out of that is important. I’m really happy that the guys got it done.”
However, the Tips needn’t have let the game get to that point. Everett was leading 4-0 late in the first period and could have turned it into a laugher, only for the Hurricanes to battle back within 4-3 going into the third period. Then after getting an important insurance goal to make it 5-3 in the third, the Tips handed Lethbridge a goal to set up at least the possibility of another third-period disaster.
“With the rough spell we’ve had the past two weeks it’s always nice to get a win, no matter how ugly they are,” said Everett captain Kohl Bauml, who had a pair of nice assists.
“We were a different team out there (compared to Saturday’s ugly loss at Seattle),” Bauml added. “You could see that tonight we played with confidence, stuck to our game plan, and didn’t let the other team dictate how we play.”
Nikita Scherbak had a goal and two assists to lead Everett (36-17-3-4), which increased its lead over Portland for first place in the division to five points. The Winterhawks were idle Sunday, meaning Everett has played one more game.
Dawson Leedahl, Patrick Bajkov, Graham Millar and Noah Juulsen also scored for the Tips. Austin Lotz, playing in goal for the third time in three nights, earned the win with 19 saves.
Jamal Watson, Giorgio Estephan, Brayden Burke and Johnny Wesley scored for Lethbridge (18-35-3-4). Stuart Skinner finished with 34 saves in net for the Hurricanes.
Everett was off to the races right from the start, scoring just 14 seconds into the game. Former Silvertips defenseman Nick Walters stumbled at the blue line, presenting Scherbak with a breakaway. Scherbak beat Skinner glove side to give Everett an immediate lead.
The Tips kept it up, making it 2-0 at 11:08. Scherbak stole the puck behind the Lethbridge net and fed Bauml, who centered a feed for Leedahl. The pass was a little bit behind Leedahl, but he reached between his legs with his stick to get the puck and slide it under Skinner.
It seemed it was game over when the Tips were presented with a five-on-three power play late in the period and scored on both ends to make it 4-0. On the five-on-three Bauml lifted a pass over sticks and skates and across the crease for Bajkov to one-time at the back door at 15:49. Then 23 seconds later Bajkov mis-hit his one-timer, only for Millar to tap it in at the far post.
But the fans hadn’t even finished cheering when Lethbridge was on the board seven seconds later. Lotz kicked out a big rebound on a shot from the point, and Watson put it in to make it 4-1.
Everett had a 4-1 advantage in power plays in the first period, and the officials seemed intent on evening that up early in the second. Lethbridge was given a questionable five-on-three, and the Hurricanes scored at 5:22 on Estephan’s one-timer in the slot. The Tips were whistled for another penalty after the goal was scored, sending the Hurricanes right back out on a five-on-three. Lethbridge didn’t score on this five-on-three, but the Hurricanes did score on the five-on-four, a bad bounce allowing Wesley to set up Burke at the far post.
“It was strange, there was all of a sudden a lot of calls,” Constantine said. “But the bottom line with all that stuff is the only thing you can control is yourself. You can talk all you want about officiating, whether you like it or not, but it doesn’t fix the future. The future is always fixed by us controlling our discipline.”
The Tips didn’t respond well to the adversity, and Lethbridge had several good chances to tie it up. Then in the final minute of the second the Tips had the puck in the net following a scramble in front, only for the goal to be waived off and Everett to be awarded a penalty shot. Skinner denied Scherbak on the penalty shot, and it remained a one-goal game going into the third.
But Everett got that crucial fifth goal from Juulsen, returning from a two-game absence because of a lower-body injury, 6:44 into the third when he one-timed a bullet in off the crossbar.
The lead seemed safe, but the Tips turned the puck over in their own zone, with Tristen Pfeifer getting beat to a pass by Wesley. Wesley skated in free on goal and slipped the puck under Lotz to give Everett its opportunity to finally hold a late on-goal lead.
Lethbridge had penalty appeals turned down with about a minute remaining when it looked like Watson was hooked as he tried to split the defense, but other than that Everett kept the puck in the Hurricane zone and didn’t allow Skinner to get the bench for an extra attacker until it was too late.
“It was just a mindset that we went out there in the last minute-and-a-half saying we’re not sitting back, we’re going to attack,” Bauml said. “We’re going to try and pin them in their zone as long as we can, and we did a good job of that. It was a nice way to finish off a game, especially with blowing a couple leads lately. Being able to close out a game that we needed in the last couple minutes was good for morale.”
Silvertips 5, Hurricanes 4
Lethbridge 1 2 1 — 4
Everett 4 0 1 — 5
First Period—1, Everett, Scherbak 24, 0:14. 2, Everett, Leedahl 11 (Bauml, Scherbak), 11:08. 3, Everett, Bajkov 22 (Bauml, Scherbak), 15:49 (pp). 4, Everett, Millar 12 (Bajkov, MacDonald), 16:12 (pp). 5, Lethbridge, Watson 23, 16:19. Penalties—Nielsen, Lethbridge (interference), 6:09; MacDonald, Everett (hold stick), 6:47; Fafard, Lethbridge (interference), 14:34; Winther, Lethbridge (holding), 15:15; Folk, Lethbridge (holding), 18:17.
Second Period—6, Lethbridge, Estephan 18 (Winther, Wong), 5:22 (pp). 7, Lethbridge, Burke 6 (Wesley, Watson), 7:14 (pp). Penalties—Laurencelle, Everett (holding), 3:46; Skrumeda, Everett (cross checking), 4:20; Betker, Everett (cross checking), 5:22; Baltram, Lethbridge (roughing), 12:07; Juulsen, Everett (roughing), 12:07; Reagan, Lethbridge (slashing), 13:32; Fonteyne, Everett (boarding), 16:17.
Third Period—8, Everett, Juulsen 7 (Nikolishin, Laurencelle), 6:44. 9, Lethbridge, Wesley 5, 12:32. Penalties—Scherbak, Everett (roughing), 7:32.
Shots on goal—Lethbridge 7-11-5—23. Everett 12-15-12—39. Power-play opportunities—Lethbridge 2 of 6. Everett 2 of 5.
Goalies—Lethbridge, Skinner 12-16-1-3 (39 shots, 34 saves). Everett, Lotz 24-13-1-3 (23 shots, 19 saves).
A—4,179.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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