Game 65 & 66 Portland & Spokane

[Tipped Off]

Slap shots: The Tips will once again be short-handed this weekend because of injuries. Left wings Ondrej Fiala (knee) and Brennan Sonne (spleen), right wing Moises Gutierrez (head) and defenseman Taylor Ellington (neck) are out. Right wing Jesse Burt (groin) is questionable. However, center Peter Mueller should be back after sitting out Wednesday's 4-1 victory at Kamloops with muscle spasms. ... Forward Kellan Tochkin and defenseman Jeff Regier, who were last-minute call-ups for Wednesday's game, returned to Everett with the team and are available for tonight's home game against Portland. If Regier plays, he will have reached his limit of five games for a 1991-born player. ... All three of Everett's players at the Canada Winter Games will be playing for a medal tonight. Forward prospect Jordan Mistelbacher (two goals, two assists in four games) and Team Manitoba take on Team Ontario for the gold medal. Left wing Kyle Beach (four goals, three assists) and Team British Columbia face defensman prospect Matt Strong (one assist) and Team Alberta for the bronze. Beach could be back for Everett's home game Saturday against Spokane. ... The one-millionth fan in franchise history is scheduled through the turnstiles this weekend. Said fan will receive a prize package and drop the ceremonial first puck.

[Tipped Off]

Tips' fans 'classless' after loss
Everett crowd pelts Winter Hawks' bench with debris after Tips fall 5-2 to Portland

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer


EVERETT - One word sums up the display at the Everett Events Center on Friday night.

Disgraceful.

It began on the ice with the Everett Silvertips turning in an ugly performance in a 5-2 loss to the lowly Portland Winter Hawks.

Then it got worse at the end as a confrontation between Everett fans and the Portland bench escalated to dangerous proportions, with fans pelting the Winter Hawks with debris, and the Portland players brandishing sticks at the fans.

"That's pretty classless," Portland coach Mike Williamson said of the game-ending fracas. "Our guys played hard. I know in Portland our fans would have been frustrated at their own team, but they can appreciate an inspired effort by the other team. I know it's a select few, but it certainly paints a bad picture for all fans."

Frazer McLaren scored two goals and Kurtis Mucha made 40 saves in goal for Portland (16-45-1-1), which played far better than indicated by the nine-game losing streak the Winter Hawks came into the game riding. Chip Petrino, Nick Hotson and Viktor Sjodin also scored for Portland.

Zach Hamill scored both goals for Everett (50-12-1-2), which has lost just three times in regulation at home - twice to Portland.

Yes, Everett was missing five key regulars. But that's no excuse for Everett's poor display, which gave no indication the Tips are ranked No. 1 in the entire Canadian Hockey League.

The Tips were nowhere to be found in the first period as Portland, the team with the worst record in the WHL, took it right at Everett and grabbed a 3-0 lead.

Everett goaltender Leland Irving lasted just 6 minutes, 44 seconds before being pulled after giving up two goals on six shots.

And after falling behind, the Tips lost their cool from the top down. The players began taking unnecessary penalties from overaggressive play and chirping at the referees. Coach Kevin Constantine received a bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct. Even general manager Doug Soetaert got in on the act, getting into a heated argument with a WHL referee supervisor after Constantine was assessed his penalty.

All of which is a worrying trend for an Everett team that's looked average the past three weeks in winning just six of its past 11 games.

"Our team has played, at best, B or C hockey for a month," Constantine said. "The evidence between that and A hockey is that in the second period we were flying. But we only do that now when we have to, we don't do it as a part of our regular routine. And our goaltending has been really up and down."

For Irving, it was his quickest hook as a Silvertip. He was beat clean by McLaren's open, long-range shot just 4:15 into the game, then saw Petrino's deflected shot trickle by 2:29 later before being pulled for David Reekie. Reekie made 23 saves on 26 shots.

"There's some key things a goalie has to do, and that's making key saves at critical times," Constantine said about the quick hook. "The start of a hockey game is the most critical time, because sometimes a team just isn't ready. That's a goalie's job, you've got to make those first few big saves. As soon as you don't do that you're a candidate to be removed, and at that juncture I thought we had a chance to change the momentum of the game."

For Portland the victory was a relief, considering the Winter Hawks had been outscored 50-4 during their nine-game losing streak.

"We've played some really good hockey during this stretch, but it seems that when we get down the guys are almost expecting goals to come in bunches," Williamson said. "At the other end we haven't scored, so it was nice tonight that we got rewarded for simple, fundamental things. That was a big relief in that sense."

Things got out of control with three seconds remaining. After a pair of fights on the ice, the confrontations began between the fans and the Portland bench. Portland assistant coach Brian Pellerin was his in the face by a flying cup of beer, and Williamson's head was buzzed by a partially full water bottle. Meanwhile, several Portland players were trying to get over the glass to get back at the fans. There's a good chance Everett will be fined for the incident.

Slap shots: The one-millionth fan in Everett franchise history came through the gates Friday. Doug Pifer of Everett received a prize package that included season tickets for next season and tickets to this year's Memorial Cup in Vancouver, B.C. ...

Everett had six players out of the lineup. Forwards Moises Gutierrez (head), Ondrej Fiala (knee), Brennan Sonne (spleen) and Jesse Burt (groin) and defenseman Taylor Ellington (neck) were out injured, and forward Kyle Beach was with Team British Columbia as it lost the bronze-medal game at the Canada Winter Games, falling 4-3 to Alberta. ... With all those players unavailable, the Tips drafted in their top two picks from the 2006 bantam draft, forward Kellan Tochkin and defenseman Jeff Regier. Following the game both returned to midget team in Fraser Valley, B.C. ... Beach is expected back for tonight's game against Spokane. ... Defenseman Matt Strong, a frequent call-up who played for Alberta at the Canada winter Games, will to join the Tips for the remainder of the season.

At Everett Events Center

Portland 3 0 2 - 5

Everett 0 1 1 - 2

First Period-1, Portland, McLaren 17 (Francis, Hotson), 4:15. 2, Portland, Petrino 2 (Cepek, Jordan), 6:44. 3, Portland, Hotson 17 (Sceviour), 11:33. Penalties-Jordan, Portland (high sticking), 10:11; Campos, Everett (interference), 10:11; Schmermund, Portland (roughing), 12:31; Harty, Everett (interference), 17:21.

Second Period-4, Everett, Hamill 29 (Mueller, Fransoo), 14:01 (pp). Penalties-Mueller, Everett (interference), 1:18; Jordan, Portland (fighting), 6:17; Harty, Everett (fighting), 6:17; Moore, Portland (hooking), 6:31; Alexiuk, Portland (holding), 11:10; Schmermund, Portland (holding), 13:21; Alic, Everett (boarding), 19:16; Everett bench (unsportsmanlike conduct, served by Harper), 19:49.

Third Period-5, Portland, Skodin 10 (King), 2:55. 6, Portland, McLaren 18 (Sceviour), 8:48 (pp). 7, Everett, Hamill 30 (Fransoo), 10:14 (pp). Penalties-Gendur, Everett (checking from behind-unsportsmanlike conduct), 5:44; Sjodin, Portland (checking from behind), 6:45; Schmermund, Portland (roughing), 9:37; Langwieder, Portland (roughing-roughing), 10:44; Alexander, Everett (checking from behind-roughing-roughing), 10:44; Ius, Everett (high sticking), 14:44; Moore, Portland (fighting), 19:53; Harty, Everett (fighting), 19:53; Betker, Portland (fighting), 19:57; Gabriel, Portland (gross misconduct-game misconduct), 19:57; Gordichuk, Portland (game misconduct), 19:57; Langwieder, Portland (10-minute misconduct), 19:57; McLaren, Portland (game misconduct), 19:57; Petrino, Portland (fighting), 19:57; Harper, Everett (fighting), 19:57; Reekie, Everett (leaving crease-game misconduct), 19:57; Vartovnik, Everett (fighting), 19:57.

Shots on goal-Portland 10-11-11-32. Everett 8-22-12-42. Power-play opportunities-Portland 1 of 8. Everett 2 of 5. Goalies-Portland, Mucha 16-36-1-1 (42 shots, 40 saves). Everett, Irving (6 shots, 4 saves), Reekie 21-7-0-0 (26 shots, 23 saves). A-7,648.

[nelson951]

Way to be Everett.... :clown:

get your beer problem under control or you'll never host the Mem Cup.

I've complained about the visitor bench security before....

[PGFlyfisher]

I saw the incident today on the net. It was not a good thing for hockey, period!
However, I for one, won' t paint all fans of one team with the same brush because of a couple of yahoos. I' m sure most buildings have one or two "bad apples" once in a while, including the CN Centre. But the rest are decent people who love the game.
As a matter of fact, I had a good chat with 2 Tips fans ( in full colors) up here in PG this week and it was a real treat to talk with them. They represented the Tips' fans, the franchise, the city of Everett and the game of hockey with the utmost class and are certainly welcome back here in PG anytime IMO! :)

[Tipped Off]

Irving bounces back in Tips' win
After struggling the night before, Everett's goaltender shuts out Spokane Saturday.

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer






EVERETT - Twenty-four hours earlier Leland Irving was suffering through one of his worst moments as an Everett Silvertip, stewing on the bench after the quickest hook of his Western Hockey League career.

But Saturday night Irving rebounded in the grandest fashion possible.

Irving buried the memories of a night earlier with a sterling performance, shutting out the Spokane Chiefs as the Silvertips prevailed 3-0 at the Everett Events Center.

In a potential preview of the first round of the playoffs, Irving made 29 saves for his ninth shutout of the season. This was on the heels of lasting just 6 minutes, 44 seconds before being pulled from Friday's 5-2 loss to Portland.

"It was important to come out and rebound with a strong performance," Irving said.

"Anyone would be disappointed with something like that," Irving added about the previous night's quick hook.

"I didn't think I played that bad and deserved the hook. But it was the coaches' decision and all that matters is that you rebound for the next game."

Friday night Irving couldn't come up with the important saves early. But Irving did a complete reversal Saturday, making two tremendous glove saves on Michael Grabner breakaways in the game's first seven minutes.

That allowed power-play goals by Zach Hamill and Peter Mueller later in the period to give the Tips a cushion, and Irving did the heavy work the rest of the way.

"Based on scoring chances we dominated the game way more (Friday) night than (Saturday)," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "The difference was that Irv stopped two breakaways. He won the game for us. As much as he lost the game (Friday) night, he won the game (Saturday)."

Mueller added a late empty-netter as Everett (51-12-1-2), combined with Vancouver's 3-2 loss to Calgary, clinched the best record in the Western Conference. With six games remaining in the season Everett leads Medicine Hat by one point for the best record in the WHL. The Tips have two games in hand.

Hamill also had an assist, giving him 90 points this season. He leads Calgary's Ryan White by five for the league scoring lead. Hamill's goal also gave him goals in the past five games, setting a new Everett record for consecutive games with a goal.

The previous record was four set by Mueller, John Lammers and Ondrej Fiala last season.

Kevin Armstrong made 13 saves in goal for Spokane (34-25-4-3), which fell into fourth place in the U.S. Division. The Chiefs trail third-place Seattle by two points, despite having played two more games. The team that finishes fourth faces Everett in the first round.

Irving held Spokane at bay early as the Chiefs controlled the game's first 10 minutes. But Cody Esposito's double-minor penalty midway through the first period gave Everett the opening it needed, and the Tips scored on both power plays to take a 2-0 lead. Hamill scored on a rebound at 10:56 and Mueller picked out the top-left corner with a wrist shot from the point at 12:01.

Everett spent much of the second period killing penalties with Irving again standing tall - plus a little help from Jonathan Harty, who twice dove behind Irving to block the puck with his body and prevent Spokane goals.

Everett continued to hold out in the third period until Mueller worked his way along the boards and fired into an open net with 2:10 remaining to seal the victory.

Slap shots: Add another player to Everett's injury list. Right wing Jesse Smyke suffered a possible concussion on a hit in Friday's game. He joined forwards Fiala (knee), Moises Gutierrez (head) and Brennan Sonne (spleen) and defenseman Taylor Ellington (neck) as injury scratches. ... Left wing Kyle Beach was back in the lineup for Everett. Beach missed the previous six games while at the Canada Winter Games. ... The Tips called up 1990-born left wing Tyler Eskesen for his WHL debut to help combat the injury crisis. The undrafted Eskesen plays for the Calgary-based Edge School, a touring midget AAA team. Also, defenseman Matt Strong is expected to rejoin the team after helping Alberta win the bronze medal at the Canada Winter Games. ... Spokane was short-handed itself with forwards Seth Compton (leg), Drayson Bowman (arm) and David Linsley (shoulder) and defenseman Justin Falk (arm) all out with injuries.

At Everett Events Center

Spokane 0 0 0 - 0

Everett 2 0 1 - 3

First Period-1, Everett, Hamill 31 (Alic, Fransoo), 10:56 (pp). 2, Everett, Mueller 18 (Hamill), 12:01 (pp). Penalties-Ius, Everett (interference), 3:28; Hamill, Everett (hooking), 6:06; Esposito, Spokane (cross-checking-hooking), 9:42; Lenoski, Spokane (delay of game), 13:56; Gendur, Everett (charging), 19:34.

Second Period-No goals. Penalties-Zimmerman, Spokane (roughing), 2:06; Beach, Everett (boarding), 2:06; Alexander, Everett (hooking), 5:11; Everett bench (too many men, served by Beach), 8:52; Mueller, Everett (tripping), 12:58; Roman, Spokane (holding), 19:55.

Third Period-3, Everett, Mueller 19 (Gendur), 17:50 (en). Penalties-Dailey, Everett (hooking), 6:29.

Shots on goal-Spokane 9-10-10-29. Everett 8-3-5-16. Power-play opportunities-Spokane 0 of 7. Everett 2 of 5. Goalies-Spokane, Armstrong 22-15-3-2 (15 shots, 13 saves). Everett, Irving 31-8-1-2 (29 shots, 29 saves). A-7,800.