EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips were less than three minutes away from punching their ticket to the second round of the playoffs.
Instead, the Tips are hopping back on the bus to Spokane with the knowledge they may have let one slip away.
Riley Whittingham scored the game winner to cap off a frantic overtime period, giving the Spokane Chiefs a 4-3 victory over the Tips in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series at Xfinity Arena.
Everett clung to a 3-2 lead throughout the third period, but Spokane’s Nick Charif tied the score with just 2 minutes, 18 seconds remaining.
Then during a breathtaking overtime in which both teams had grade-A chances to end it, Whittingham finally won it when he got a tap on Liam Stewart’s centering feed on the rush, just sliding the puck into the far corner at 15:25 to keep the series alive.
“We battled hard,” Everett captain Kohl Bauml said. “I think we sat back a little too much in the third period. But in overtime I thought we did a hell of a job. We had our chances to win, they didn’t go in for us. Their goalie (Garret Hughson) played well, and kudos to them, they put their chances in when they got them.”
Stewart and Markson Bechtold also scored and Hughson made 36 saves for Spokane, which now trails Everett 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Game 6 is Tuesday in Spokane.
Bauml, Carson Stadnyk and Brayden Low scored for Everett. Carter Hart made 39 saves in net for the Tips, who must now rebound from a heartbreaking loss.
“You can slice it up any way you want,” Bauml said. “But at the end of the day we still have a 3-2 series lead. So yeah, we’re bitter about this one. Obviously we had a chance to close it out at home. Losing that in the last couple minutes isn’t a great feeling. But we have a job to do. It’s first to four, that’s what we’ve been saying all week. So we have a job to do come Tuesday night and anything can happen.”
The Tips were oh so close to ending the series, leading 3-2 with time winding down in the third period. However, the Tips played defensive and nervous throughout the third, and it seemed just a matter of time before the Chiefs tied it.
Spokane finally did the deed with 2:18 remaining. Everett had multiple chances of getting the puck out of trouble, but was unable to get the puck past the red line, handing Spokane all kinds of possession in the offensive zone. Eventually Charif got the puck at the top of the right circle with a clean look, and he fired a shot past Hart to tie it and send the game to overtime.
Overtime could have ended on several occasions as tired legs — the teams were playing their second overtime game of a stretch of three games in four nights — resulted in premium scoring chances. Spokane’s Dominic Zwerger seemed sure to end it when he had Hart beat on a breakaway, but he somehow put the puck wide of the post. Then Everett’s Remi Laurencelle twice had great looks in close, but he put a two-on-one feed off the post and fired just wide on a rebound chance. Those misses gave Whittingham the chance to win it for the Chiefs.
Everett had scoring chances early in the game, but couldn’t convert, with Ivan Nikolishin missing a wide-open net on the power play.
Then Spokane took advantage of a turnover to grab the lead at 12:19. Everett’s Jordan Wharrie sent a pass behind his own net that was picked off by Spokane’s Keanu Yamamoto. Yamamoto immediately fed the puck out front to Bechtold, who scored around Hart on his backhand to make it 1-0.
A wild second period followed that started with a major penalty and game misconduct to Spokane’s Evan Fiala for kneeing. Everett tied it during the ensuing five-minute penalty, Stadnyk tipping in a point shot by Noah Juulsen at 2:59 to knot it at 1-1.
Everett then took the lead at 10:17. Logan Aasman entered the zone on the right, waited for Low to drive the net, and fired toward Low. Low’s initial redirect was saved by Hughson, but Low was able to poke in the rebound to make it 2-1.
Spokane tied it back up at 11:14 on a goal Hart would want back. Stewart skated the puck into the zone on the right and sent an innocuous-looking backhander toward goal from a tight angle. However, the puck squeezed past Hart’s skate at the post, making it 2-2.
But the Tips regained the lead 1:30 later. Jake Mykitiuk’s wraparound attempt was saved by Hughson, but Bauml was planted in front to bang in the rebound to make it 3-2.
Slap shots
Everett welcomed defenseman Ben Betker back to the lineup. The overage defenseman suffered an upper-body injury early in Everett’s 6-2 home loss in Game 2, then sat out Games 3 and 4 in Spokane. … The Tips remained without winger Dawson Leedahl for the second straight game. Leedahl, who was a late scratch from Friday’s Game 4, has an undisclosed ailment.
Chiefs 4, Silvertips 3 (OT)
Spokane 1 1 1 1 — 4
Everett 0 3 0 0 — 3
First Period—1, Spokane, Bechtold 1 (Ke. Yamamoto), 12:19. Penalties—Spokane bench (too many men, served by Whittingham), 1:45; Laday, Spokane (interference), 4:51; Fiala, Spokane (unsportsmanlike conduct), 13:12; Low, Everett (unsportsmanlike conduct), 13:12.
Second Period—2, Everett, Stadnyk 4 (Juulsen, Bauml), 2:59 (pp). 3, Everett, Low 3 (Aasman, Fonteyne), 10:17. 4, Spokane, Stewart 2 (Brooks, Laday), 11:14. 5, Everett, Bauml 1 (Mykitiuk, Stadnyk), 12:44. Penalties—Fiala, Spokane (major-kneeing-game misconduct), 2:28; Brooks, Spokane (hooking), 2:55; MacDonald, Everett (embellishment), 2:55; Laday, Spokane (holding), 7:38; Mykitiuk, Everett (cross checking), 16:28.
Third Period—6, Spokane, Charif 1, 17:42. Penalties—none.
Overtime—7, Spokane, Whittingham 1 (Stewart), 15:25. Penalties—none.
Shots on goal—Spokane 10-11-14-8—43. Everett 12-15-4-8—39. Power-play opportunities—Spokane 0 of 1. Everett 1 of 4.
Goalies—Spokane, Hughson 2-3 (39 shots, 36 saves). Everett, Hart 3-2 (43 shots, 39 saves).
A—4,249.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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