Silvertips shift focus after crucial loss to Portland

EVERETT — On the day after, the Everett Silvertips were focused less on the finish line and more on the track immediately in front of them.

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s disappointing loss to Portland in a crucial U. S. Division showdown, the Tips were trying to focus on the here and now rather than the goal of attaining a division title.

“We’re not too worried about (the division title) at the moment,” Everett captain Kohl Bauml said following Thursday’s practice at Xfinity Arena. “We have bigger things to worry about. We have to focus on playing the game the right way and being ready for these big games. Yeah, (Wednesday) night was a big game, but like our coaches said we’re going to be playing in bigger games come the end of March. It’s a learning experience for our group.”

The U.S. Division title has been a goal for Everett since the beginning of the season. The Tips haven’t raised a division banner since 2007, and this year’s team was determined to end the drought. Everett found itself in position to end that dry spell for most of the season, sitting at first place in the standings.

However, Wednesday’s result, in which the Winterhawks blew past Everett 6-1, changed the dynamic. Portland’s victory means the title is no longer solely in Everett’s hands. The Tips still lead the Winterhawks by two points in the standings. However, Portland has two games in hand, meaning that if Portland wins out it will claim the crown regardless of how the Tips finish the season.

Then there’s the strength of the teams’ schedules to consider. Six of Portland’s final seven games come against teams in the bottom half of the Western Conference, while four of Everett’s last five games are against top-half Western Conference foes. Add in Portland’s big-game experience — the Winterhawks have won three of the past four division titles and played in the last four WHL championship series — and the odds seem high the Winterhawks will eventually pass the Tips for first.

“We’ve been determined to try and put ourselves in position to win a division title, so that remains very important to us,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said following Wednesday’s game. “But we sometimes this year have gotten too caught up in that. You still need to take the game and turn it into a shift-by-shift focus. I’m glad our guys are very determined this year to try and win a division title for the first time (since 2007), I’m glad that was the goal.

“But division title or no division title, we need to play the game with the focus not on the division title but on playing the game the right way, the way we know we need to play, the way each player knows he needs to play, the way we’ve trained for six months to play. We need to have that focus, and we lost a little bit of that (Wednesday) and we have to get back to that.”

Everett was convincingly outplayed by Portland for 56-plus minutes of Wednesday’s game. The Tips opened the scoring 3:18 into the game, but the Winterhawks took control from that moment. Star forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand (two goals) and Nicolas Petan (one goal and two assists) were too much for Everett to handle.

“It wasn’t our night, plain and simple,” Bauml said.

“For whatever reason, they beat us. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot on a couple goals and their big guns came to play. They put the puck in the net when they had their chances.”

The Tips don’t have any time to dwell upon Wednesday’s loss as the task doesn’t get much easier this weekend. Everett faces I-5 rival Seattle in a home-and-home set, with Friday’s game in Kent and Saturday’s in Everett. The Everett-Seattle series has built a reputation for close hard-fought games. However, the last time Everett traveled to Kent on Feb. 21 the Tips were throttled 7-0.

Therefore, Everett needs a bounce-back performance, not just from Wednesday’s loss, but also from its last game against the T-birds.

“It’s going to be a big test for us,” defenseman Noah Juulsen said. “Two huge games this weekend we need in order to stay alive, so it’s going to be huge for us. We have to be on our A game here and do what we can to win.

“We need a bounce back after (Wednesday),” Juulsen added. “It was a big loss, so we need big wins this weekend to keep us going.”

Should Everett get passed by Portland and end up finishing second in the division, Seattle would almost certainly be the Tips’ first-round playoff opponent. That would be the second straight year Everett and Seattle meet in the first round.

“Every game against a division rival is a dogfight,” Bauml said about the importance of this weekend’s games. “We’re getting geared up for those guys. It’s potential playoff matchup, so we need to go in there and get two points.

“When you have an off game you want to come back and have one of your better games,” Bauml added. “We’ve been pretty good at responding to off nights, not trying to have too many in a row. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

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