VICTORIA, B.C. — The race for the WHL’s U.S. Division title took another twist Friday night, and the Everett Silvertips once again have their destiny in their own hands.
Everett did what it needed to do, beating the Victoria Royals 4-3. With Portland suffering an unexpected 4-2 loss at Tri-City on Friday, the Tips once again hold first place in the division outright.
Remi Laurencelle had a goal and two assists to lead Everett , which is back in control of the race for the division tile. The Tips and Portland went into the night tied for first, and the Winterhawks were in pole position by virtue of holding the tiebreaker. But now Everett leads Portland by two points with both teams having two games remaining. If the Tips win out, they’ll claim their first division banner since 2007. Everett plays its final home game of the season Saturday in a rematch with Victoria, then finishes the season Sunday at Spokane. Portland travels to Seattle on Saturday, then hosts Tri-City on Sunday.
Ivan Nikolishin, Brayden Low and Noah Juulsen scored the other goals for Everett (42-20-3-5), while Nikita Scherbak dished out two assists. Carter Hart earned the win in goal with 18 saves.
Brandon Magee, Austin Carroll and Tyler Soy scored for Victoria (38-29-3-1), which is already locked into second place in the B.C. Division. Coleman Vollrath made 24 saves in net for the Royals.
After a scoreless first period, the goals came fast and furious in the second. It began when the Tips broke the ice on the power play at 2 minutes, 39 seconds, Nikolishin scoring in the slot as the trailer on the rush.
Victoria responded by scoring twice to take the lead. The Royals got a power-play goal of their own at 9:04 when Magee sniped the top corner from the slot. Then Carroll converted a nice feed from Magee at the far post at 12:38 to make it 2-1.
But then Everett rallied to regain the lead. A nice passing move involving Scherbak and Laurencelle set up Low in the high slot, tying it at 14:45. Then Low turned provider at 17:02, winning a puck battle down low and feeding it out front for Laurencelle to slam home and make it 3-2.
The Tips got an all-important insurance goal 10:27 into the third when a great pass through traffic by Scherbak found Juulsen pinching in from the point.
Victoria got back within one with 4:59 remaining as Soy finished off after a nice rush by Greg Chase. But the Tips did a good job shutting things down the rest of the way to hold on.
Silvertips 4, Royals 3
Everett 0 3 1 — 4
Victoria 0 2 1 — 3
First Period—no goals. Penalties—Leedahl, Everett (hooking), 3:03; Millar, Everett (tripping), 9:27.
Second Period—1, Everett, Nikolishin 16 (Stadnyk), 2:39 (pp). 2, Victoria, Magee 23 (Hicketts, Brown), 9:04 (pp). 3, Victoria, Carroll 38 (Magee, Forsberg), 12:38. 4, Everett, Low 15 (Laurencelle, Scherbak), 14:45. 5, Everett, Laurencelle 22 (Low, MacDonald), 17:02. Penalties—Chase, Victoria (slashing), 1:49; Chase, Victoria (unsportsmanlike conduct), 5:30; Wharrie, Everett (interference), 8:06.
Third Period—6, Everett, Juulsen 8 (Scherbak, Laurencelle), 10:27. 7, Victoria, Soy 28 (Chase, Walker), 15:01. Penalties—none.
Shots on goal—Everett 9-12-7—28. Victoria 7-6-8—21. Power-play opportunities—Everett 1 of 2. Victoria 1 of 3.
Goalies—Everett, Hart 18-5-2-2 (21 shots, 18 saves). Victoria, Vollrath 28-15-3-1 (28 shots, 24 saves).
A—6,813.
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