Game 33 @ Seattle

[Tipped Off]

With break over, Tips look ahead
Now that its memorable first half is behind it, Everett begins its second half tonight in Seattle.

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer






EVERETT - The Everett Silvertips had a memorable first half of the Western Hockey League season. The Tips compiled the best record in the league at 27-5-0-1 and ascended to the No. 1 ranking in the entire Canadian Hockey League.

However, the first half is in the past, and with the second half of the season beginning tonight in Seattle, the Silvertips have to concentrate on what's ahead rather than what's behind.

"I don't think what happened in the first half means much right now," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "What really matters in the second half is that when playoff time rolls around, we're ready to compete in the playoffs."

The Tips saw their nine-day Christmas break come to an abrupt end Tuesday. The players flew back into town during the day with the team holding a night practice in preparation for tonight's game at Seattle. Forwards Ondrej Fiala and Lukas Vartovnik, returning from their homes in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, respectively, didn't even make it back in time for practice because of late flight arrivals. Nevertheless, the break gave the players a chance to catch their breath.

"It was relaxing," Everett center Zach Hamill said of the break. "I pretty much did nothing and that was the best part. The break's something that's good for everyone, but we have a long way to go from now and we needed that break to refresh."

Everett heads into the second half in good position. The Tips have a commanding 14-point lead atop the U.S. Division and are poised to win their third division banner in four seasons of existence. Everett also appears to be one of the favorites to win the league title and head to the Memorial Cup, held this season in Vancouver, B.C.

However, despite Everett's strong position, those goals remain far on the horizon.

"I'm not saying we don't want to win our division and compete for the Memorial Cup, we do," Constantine said. "But it's not productive to worry about that or worry about if we're going to be as good as we were in the first half. It's much more productive to do the things on a daily basis you need to do to be successful as a team."

And as good as Everett's record was in the first half of the season, it doesn't mean the Tips don't have areas for improvement. In particular the Tips have been an average even-strength team, relying on their superior special teams to win games. That could become a problem if it lingers into the playoffs, considering power plays tend to become rarer during the postseason.

"We have to get better five-on-five," Hamill said. "I think we're near the bottom of the league in goals five-on-five. But our whole game has to get better if we want to go to the Memorial Cup. Only the best make it there and we have to be the best."

Everett is being thrust straight into the thick of things in the second half. It begins with tonight's game at Seattle, where the Tips have won just twice in four years, and Everett plays seven games in its first 12 days back.

During that stretch Everett will also be without its top two players. Both center Peter Mueller, who leads the team in scoring with 45 points (eight goals, 37 assists), and goaltender Leland Irving (19-3-0-1, 1.55 goals against average, .939 save percentage) are in Sweden for the World Junior Hockey Championships. Mueller is playing for the United States, Irving for Canada.

Mueller and Irving are expected to miss seven more games before returning for the Jan. 12 home game against Portland. Should Irving continue to serve as backup to Carey Price and thus not exert himself during the tournament, it's possible he'll be back quicker than Mueller.

Though Everett is not at full strength because of Mueller's and Irving's absences, the Tips are just about back to full health. Right wing Brandon Campos is back from his hip injury. Defenseman Eric Doyle (leg) is back to practicing at full speed and could play tonight if needed, though it's likely he'll be given the extra day off.

[Tipped Off]

Silvertips hope to get beyond KeyArena jinx
By JIM RILEY
The Seattle Times

When the Everett Silvertips end their holiday break tonight, they will be stepping into one of their least favorite venues.

Since Everett began play in the Western Hockey League (WHL) in the 2003-04 season, the Silvertips are 2-13 with three ties at KeyArena in Seattle. They are 0-2 this season, including a 2-1 loss there in the final game before the break on Dec. 17.

Tonight, Everett returns to Seattle without star goaltender Leland Irving (Team Canada) and leading scorer Peter Mueller (Team USA). Both are at the World Junior Championships in Sweden, which started Tuesday, and both are key elements to Everett's success.

"We never win at KeyArena, and it's getting really old for me," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "It's never hard for me to get motivated for a game there, and hopefully our players feel the same way."

This season, with Everett in first place in the U.S. Division at 27-0-5-1 and Seattle second at 16-9-1-8, the 28 miles between the two franchises seems even closer.

Everett and Seattle have been competitive over the years, but despite their geographic proximity, the Thunderbirds haven't been the Silvertips' main rival in the division, and the two have never met in the playoffs.

In its expansion season in 2003-04, Everett's biggest rival was the Portland Winter Hawks because each of those games presented such a stark clash of styles, and because Everett won the division by three points over Portland that season.

That season, the Silvertips played a defensive game that avoided penalties.

The Winter Hawks were the polar opposite, an offensive team proud to lead the WHL in penalty minutes.

Over the years, a very similar clash of styles with the Tri-City Americans created disdain for each other between the teams that still festers.

Seattle and Everett, on the other hand, have always maintained a healthy mutual respect.

All-time, the series could not be closer. Everett is 16-16 with four ties and one shootout loss in a series dominated by whichever team happens to be playing in front of its home fans.

Everett is a remarkable 15-0-0-1 at home this season and 3-0 against Seattle at the Everett Events Center.

The last win, on Dec. 9, came after Seattle built a 3-0 lead entering the third period and the Silvertips sent the game into overtime with a Mueller goal with three seconds left in regulation.

Zach Hamill then won the game for Everett in a shootout when he scored on a shot taken with his stick between his legs.

After tonight's game, the Silvertips play in Kelowna on Friday before Seattle returns to the Everett Events Center on Saturday.

Seattle coach Rob Sumner said the series with Everett is always highlighted on the schedule and that it takes on even more meaning this season because of the U.S. Division standings.

"They're one of the elite teams in the league, and we've made up some ground lately to try to get into that group," Sumner said. "We were down in fourth place in the standings a week before the break and our short-term goal was to get up to second. Now we've got bigger things in mind."

Sumner knows these two upcoming games against Everett, the sixth and seventh of the 10 meetings between them in the regular season, will go a long way toward determining whether the T-birds have a realistic chance to make a run at Everett for the division title.

"We're always more worried about how we are playing, but we don't discount how important those games are," Sumner said. "We've shown that when we are on top of our game we can play with any team in the league, and that's what we want to do every night."

The Silvertips are the top-ranked team in the WHL and all of junior hockey. They have the WHL's best power play (23 percent) and are second on the penalty kill (90.7 percent). They have also allowed the fewest goals in the league (56), 16 fewer than any other team in the league.

"If you look at the whole picture and said this is where we'd be after the first half, we'd think it was pretty good," Constantine said. "Taking a week off was good to get re-energized and recharged and come back to make a run at the second half of the season."

[Tipped Off]

It took 12 shooters per team, but Everett finally broke the "curse of Key Arena". Here's a list of the shooters...

Seattle Shootout
24 Jan Eberle Goal
27 Brett Robertson No Goal
7 Aaron Gagnon No Goal
11 Bud Holloway Goal
22 Greg Scott Goal
26 Ian McKenzie No Goal
32 Jeremy Boyer No Goal
12 David Richard No Goal
9 Prab Rai Goal
15 Joshua Schappert No Goal
19 Radek Meidl No Goal
2 Jeremy Schappert No Goal
Total: 4

Everett
12 Kyle Beach No Goal
17 Dan Gendur No Goal
9 Zach Hamill Goal
49 Moises Gutierrez Goal
32 Brennan Sonne Goal
10 Brandon Campos No Goal
67 Ondrej Fiala No Goal
14 Shane Harper No Goal
7 Jesse Zetariuk Goal
21 Zack Dailey No Goal
5 Jonathan Harty No Goal
28 Jesse Smyke Goal
Total: 5

[Redwic]

Considering that the Silvertips are still ten games below .500, at 3-13-3 (tie). But a win is a win, and no game at the Key Arena goes according to plan.

[Tipped Off]

Tips figure out the Key
Everett KOs Seattle in a 12-round shootout to win at KeyArena for the first time in more than a year

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer

SEATTLE - Finally!

It may have required suffering through every agony imaginable, but the Everett Silvertips finally solved KeyArena.

In their first game back from the Christmas break the Silvertips overcame their own personal house of horrors, defeating the Seattle Thunderbirds 5-4 in a shootout Wednesday night in a wild affair.

It took every ounce of nerve the Tips could muster to pull this one out. Everett lost the lead three times, the final time coming with just 1 minute, 9 seconds remaining in regulation. The ensuing shootout then went 12 rounds before Jesse Smyke finally scored the decider to give the Tips a 5-4 win in the shootout.

"It's a real big relief to come in here and get two points, even if it was in a shootout," Smyke said. "We don't win too much in this building, and we didn't want to lose two in a row."

Dan Gendur, Zach Hamill, Jason Fransoo and Kyle Beach scored goals for Everett (28-5-0-1). David Reekie made 25 saves in goal, but saved his best for the shootout when he made several miraculous stops when Seattle had chances to end it.

Jan Eberle scored a hat trick and Radek Meidl also scored for Seattle (16-9-1-9), which is now 0-for-9 in shootouts this season. Derek Yeomans made 24 saves in goal for the T-birds.

"We made a lot of mistakes," Seattle coach Rob Sumner said. "It's kind of a funny game. We battled back in the end, but had too many mistakes during the game."

Everett came into the game 2-13 with three ties all time at KeyArena, and the Tips hadn't won in Seattle since Dec. 18, 2005. So perhaps it was going to take a game like Wednesday's - which included two goals in the first 30 seconds, four ties and a bevy of mistakes typical of teams coming off a nine-day layoff - for Everett to finally break the drought.

"It's not shocking it would take 24 shooters to decide it because we can barely win here," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "That's about as barely as you get.

"First games after breaks don't fit the mold, so maybe it's good we played here on this night."

It looked like Everett's bad luck in Seattle was going to continue when Seattle scored at the end of regulation. The Tips clung to a one-goal lead almost the entire third period. But the T-birds pulled Yeomans for an extra attacker, and shortly after Eberle scored on a rebound - his third rebound goal of the game - to force overtime.

After a scoreless overtime the teams went to the shootout. Hamill converted Everett's third shot of the shootout to keep Everett alive and force extra shots. Seattle's Bud Holloway, Greg Scott and Prab Rai all scored in must-score situations to keep the game alive.

Reekie's saves kept Everett in it before Smyke stepped in for Everett's 12th shot. Not known for his offensive abilities, Smyke made a great move to his backhand and put the puck into the top of the net to put the Tips ahead. Reekie then saved Jeremy Schappert's attempt to end the marathon.

" (Smyke) does those things in practice a lot and he's never really brought that to a game environment," Constantine said about Everett's unlikely hero. "Maybe that's a breakthrough goal for him, to have the poise and confidence to get that done in a pressure situation."

Wednesday's game was certainly more lively than when the teams met just before the Christmas break, a sleepy affair in which the teams combined for just 24 shots in a 2-1 Seattle victory.

The game came alive just seven seconds in when Everett received a dream start. Off the opening faceoff, Beach forced his way into the Seattle zone and fed a pass out front for the onrushing Gendur, who put a shot in off the underside of the crossbar to make it 1-0. The goal was the fastest ever to start a game in franchise history.

However, Everett's lead was short-lived. Just 23 seconds later Eberle scored on a rebound to tie it up.

The game continued that pattern throughout. Hamill and Fransoo scored 35 seconds apart midway through the second period to restore Everett's lead, but Meidl scored on another rebound 1:24 later to tie it again.

Beach put in a rebound on the power play 34 seconds into the third period to give Everett the lead again. The Tips held on for 18 minutes, but had their hopes of a regulation victory dashed by Eberle.

Slap shots: In addition to center Peter Mueller and goaltender Leland Irving, who are away at the World Junior Hockey Championships, Everett was also without defenseman Eric Doyle. Doyle missed his fifth straight game with a leg injury, but he's expected to be available this weekend. ... Seattle was without defenseman Thomas Hickey, who was absent for personal reasons. ... Seattle's two new faces, Rai and center Brett Robertson who were acquired via trade during the break, were both in the lineup. ... Seattle defenseman Bretton Stamler left the game in the third period after taking a shot to the face and did not return.

At KeyArena

Everett 1 2 1 0 - 5

Seattle 2 1 1 0 - 4

Everett won shootout 5-4

First Period-1, Everett, Gendur 7 (Beach), 0:07. 2, Seattle, Eberle 10 (Holloway), 0:30. 3, Seattle, Eberle 11 (Gagnon, Holloway), 19:17. Penalties-Sonne, Everett (kneeing), 5:11; McKenzie, Seattle (tripping), 9:19; Holloway, Seattle (hooking), 9:57; Potuer, Everett (holding), 16:04; Vartovnik, Everett (interference), 19:51.

Second Period-4, Everett, Hamill 15 (Harty, Gendur), 10:50. 5, Everett, Fransoo 6, 11:25. 6, Seattle, Meidl 8 (Jo. Schappert), 12:49. Penalties-Richard, Seattle (hooking), 1:41; Harty, Everett (roughing), 4:33; Rai, Seattle (holding), 7:05; Potuer, Everett (holding), 13:01.

Third Period-7, Everett, Beach 15 (Gutierrez, Fiala), 0:34 (pp). 8, Seattle, Eberle 12, 18:51. Penalties-Gagnon, Seattle (slashing), 0:23; Jo. Schappert, Seattle (high sticking), 5:17; Gagnon, Seattle (hooking), 11:14; Potuer, Everett (tripping), 16:00.

Overtime-No goals. Penalties-Olson, Seattle (match penalty-high sticking), 4:46.

Shootout-Everett 5 (Beach NG, Gendur NG, Hamill G, Gutierrez G, Sonne G, Campos NG, Fiala NG, Harper NG, Zetariuk G, Dailey NG, Harty NG, Smyke G); Seattle 4 (Eberle G, Robertson NG, Gagnon NG, Holloway G, Scott G, McKenzie NG, Boyer NG, richard NG, Rai G, Jo. Schappert NG, Meidl NG, Je. Schappert NG).

Shots on goal-Everett 10-11-6-1-28. Seattle 9-12-7-1-29. Power-play opportunities-Everett 1 of 8. Seattle 0 of 6.

Goalies-Everett, Reekie 10-5-0-0 (29 shots, 25 saves). Seattle, Yeomans 12-6-1-7 (28 shots, 24 saves).

A-4,334.