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Tipped Off
03-17-2005, 12:02 PM
Gereat lead to this story and it sums up last nights game perfectly!

From the everett Herald:

EVERETT - For nearly two periods the Everett Silvertips looked like a team that had gotten a good team discount on Nyquil.

But a double dose of Karel Hromas and Alex Leavitt woke the Silvertips up better than anything they could have found at Starbucks.

Hromas had a hat trick and Leavitt set up three goals with gorgeous passes, leading the Silvertips to a 4-2 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Wednesday in a Western Hockey League game.

Hromas tied the score at 1-1 late in the second period, put Everett ahead 3-2 midway through the third period, and put the game away with an empty-net goal in the final minute, registering Everett's second hat trick of the season.

"It feels great to help the team win the game," Hromas said through interpreter Ivan Baranka. "My linemates played well. Great passes from (Torrie) Wheat and Leavitt helped a lot."

Everett's wake-up call allowed the Tips (33-26-8-2) to maintain their two-point advantage over Portland, which beat Spokane 4-0, for second place in the U.S. Division. Whichever team finishes second in the standings earns home-ice advantage in their first round of the playoffs.

"We had a terrible first period and the coaching staff definitely let us know that," Leavitt said. "We finally got a power-play goal there in the second period and that kind of triggered the momentum in our direction a bit. We weren't playing a very good game and finally in the third we came alive a little bit and started creating some offense.

"They played hard and probably deserved to win that game. We got lucky tonight."

Before an Everett Events Center crowd of 5,682, the Silvertips sleepwalked through 37 minutes before Hromas' first goal finally shook the cobwebs out of the Everett players. And if Everett wasn't fully alert by the end of the game, Seattle's James McEwan remedied that by ramming into Everett goaltender Michael Wall with seven seconds remaining and inciting a line brawl.

"It borders on ridiculous, if you ask me, to charge a goalie from the blue line," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "It's bush. In high-level hockey you don't see that. That's garbage."

Kyle Annesley also scored for Everett and Wall made 20 saves.

Bretton Stamler and Denis Topleko scored and Bryan Bridges made 15 saves for Seattle (42-23-2-2), which lost all five of its games in Everett this season.

"I thought we played good tonight," Seattle coach Rob Sumner said. "It could have gone either way. Even with the goalie out we had some big-time chances. There's been times (in Everett) where we flat out deserved to lose and we didn't play very well. I thought we were better tonight."

Hromas, at times, has seemed snakebitten this season as far as putting the puck in the net. But at 17:04 of the second period Leavitt threaded a beautiful pass through traffic to the far post for Hromas to control and rifle behind Bridges to tie the score at 1-1. The goal came on just Everett's sixth shot of the game.

After the teams traded goals early in the third period, Hromas put Everett ahead 3-2 at 7:37, one-timing a centering pass from Leavitt into the corner. He polished off his hat trick by flipping the puck the length of the ice into an empty net with 24.6 seconds remaining. Hromas has 18 goals this season.

"Karel's been playing super for our line and for the team the whole season," Leavitt said. "He's had a lot of chances lately and he's started to score lately. He's really picking it up, so it's good to see he's really coming along."

Slap shots: Everett center Zach Hamill was scratched for the second straight game. Hamill, resting a sprained ankle, is expected to be ready in time for this weekend's games. ... Seattle defenseman Zach FitzGerald returned to the T-bird lineup after missing the previous three games because of suspension. Also, 15-year-old defensman Thomas Hickey played is second WHL contest for Seattle, with center Mitch Fadden rested.