SPOKANE — The Everett Silvertips warmed up for their first-round playoff series against the Spokane Chiefs in winning fashion.
Everett completed its 2014-15 regular season by beating Spokane 5-4 Sunday in a match-up between teams that will face one another in the postseason.
Sunday’s result wasn’t really about sending a message — both teams rested several of their top players as the game had nothing at stake. But the Tips still finished off the third-best season in the franchise’s 12-season history with a win.
Gunnar Wegleitner, Patrick Bajkov, Noah Juulsen, Jake Mykitiuk and Brayden Low scored goals for Everett (43-20-3-6), which won the season series against the Chiefs 5-3. Austin Lotz, starting in goal for the first time in nine games, made 29 saves to earn the win.
Adam Helewka had two goals and an assist to lead Spokane (34-34-3-1), which heads into the postseason on a five-game losing streak. Kailer Yamamoto and Riley Whittingham also scored for the Chiefs, while Tyson Verhelst made 15 saves in net.
The first-round, best-of-seven playoff series begins Friday in Everett.
Everett opened the scoring just 2 minutes, 2 seconds into the game when Wegleitner tipped in Kevin Davis’ shot from the point. It was the 16-year-old rookie’s first career WHL goal. The Tips then scored a similar goal to make it 2-0 at 5:49 as Bajkov tipped in Cole MacDonald’s point shot.
Spokane pulled back within one on the power play at 16:34 as Yamamoto’s shot beat Lotz to make it 2-1. The Chiefs began to control play in the second period, and Spokane tied it at 11:51. Helewka took advantage if a broken play, putting a backhander past Lotz to knot it at 2-2.
Everett then surged back ahead, scoring three times in the third period to build a 5-2 lead. Juulsen broke the tie at 3:35 when he slipped a shot from a tight angle past Verhelst. Mykitiuk made it 4-2 at 11:19 when, on the power play, he got behind the defense and batted a puck out of the air and past Verhelst. Low completed the barrage at 15:13, banging in a rebound following Jantzen Leslie’s shot from the point.
Spokane got late goals from Whittingham and Helewka to get back within one, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Tips from ending the season with a victory.
Silvertips 5, Chiefs 4
Everett 2 0 3 — 5
Spokane 1 1 2 — 4
First Period—1, Everett, Wegleitner 1 (Davis, Leedahl), 2:02. 2, Everett, Bajkov 23 (MacDonald, Davis), 5:49. 3, Spokane, Ka. Yamamoto 23 (Whittingham, Charif), 16:34 (pp). Penalties—Henderson, Spokane (tripping), 7:37; Everett bench (too many men, served by Millar), 15:35.
Second Period—4, Spokane, Helewka 43 (Elynuik), 11:51. Penalties—Whittingham, Spokane (boarding), 9:25; Nikolishin, Everett (embellishment), 13:18; Laday, Spokane (boarding), 16:07.
Third Period—5, Everett, Juulsen 9 (Nikolishin), 3:35. 6, Everett, Mykitiuk 4 (Aasman, MacDonald), 11:19 (pp). 7, Everett, Low 16 (Leslie, Aasman), 15:13. 8, Spokane, Whittingham 19 (Helewka, Henderson), 16:23. 9, Spokane, Helewka 44 (Elynuik, Zwerger), 19:45. Penalties—Low, Everett (roughing), 2:03; Fiala, Spokane (roughing), 2:03; Laurencelle, Everett (cross checking), 4:50; Low, Everett (roughing), 6:29; Zwerger, Spokane (roughing), 6:29; Fiala, Spokane (cross checking), 10:12.
Shots on goal—Everett 8-4-8—20. Spokane 8-13-12—33. Power-play opportunities—Everett 1 of 4. Spokane 1 of 3.
Goalies—Everett, Lotz 25-15-1-3 (33 shots, 29 saves). Spokane, Verhelst 11-11-0-0 (20 shots, 15 saves).
A—6,110.
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