Game 3 - Giants @ Tips

[Tipped Off]

http://www.everettsilvertips.com/news/story.cfm?ID=1560

Five Game Homestand Kicks Off Saturday
Silvertips remain in Everett through October 16th
Everett Silvertips Press Release

Everett, WA - The Everett Silvertips will be hosting four exciting Western Hockey League clubs as the home portion of the 2009-10 schedule kicks off with a rivalry game against the Vancouver Giants on Saturday.

The Vancouver Giants will be featuring another hard working, physically capable team under Head Coach Don Hay, who has led the club to four consecutive B.C. Division titles. Calgary Flames draft pick Lance Bouma takes over as the team's captain following the departure of Jonathan Blum to the professional ranks. Vancouver Canucks draft pick Kevin Connauton will lead a young but talented core of Giants defenseman, who have a challenging task of replacing the experience from departed players Blum, Craig Schira, Mike Berube and Brent Regner. Everett defeated Vancouver 4-2 in the Giants' home opener at Pacific Coliseum on Saturday, September 19th.

Silvertips vs Giants: Saturday, September 26th, 7:05 pm
-the September 26th game against Vancouver is the Silvertips' home opener, featuring player introductions and a brand new light show and team video for the 2009-10 season. The first 5,000 fans will receive a 2009-10 Silvertips Magnet Schedule, presented by Lamoureux Homes.

The Portland Winterhawks play two consecutive games against the Everett Silvertips in early October, featuring a much improved squad from the team that struggled to win games over the previous three seasons. European imports Jacob Berglund and Nino Niederreiter look to pace the scoring, while Troy Rutkowski and the 6'7 St. Louis Blues draft pick Brett Ponich hope to sturdy the blueline. Kurtis Mucha, coming off his invite to the Edmonton Oilers' training camp, returns in net as the Winterhawks' all-time goaltending leader in games played, minutes, and shots faced.

Silvertips vs Winterhawks: Wednesday, October 7th, 7:05 pm
Silvertips vs Winterhawks: Sunday, October 11th, 5:05 pm
-the Wednesday, October 7th game is EmpowerMe! night with the Everett Silvertips, featuring lessons on stretching, working out, and eating healthy for all the kids in attendance, as presented by the American Heart Association.

The Prince Albert Raiders invade Comcast Arena in mid-October, becoming the first Eastern Conference team to play in Everett in 2009-10. A young squad that features several talented young players entering their draft year, center Ryan Button looks to lead the Raiders to the playoffs after a breakthrough 16-year old season in which he recorded fourteen goals and 21 assists for 35 points. Defenseman Ryan Button exploded with a 37 point season on the blueline last season and remains one of the stronger puck moving defensemen out east.

Silvertips vs Raiders: Wednesday, October 14th, 7:05 pm

The Seattle Thunderbirds make their first appearance in Snohomish County on Friday, October 16th, featuring a young team with a handful of roster spots occupied by 16-year olds. Perhaps the most heralded of these players is Coppell, TX native Colin Jacobs, who looks to boost Seattle's offensive output following the departure of Jim O'Brien, David Richard and Jeremy Boyer. Goaltender Calvin Pickard enters his draft year as one of the more intriguing goaltending prospects in the WHL; he stopped 46 of 49 shots in a 4-3 victory by Seattle over Everett on opening night. The Silvertips look to return the favor to close out the longest homestand of the season.

Silvertips vs Thunderbirds: Friday, October 16th, 7:35 pm

[Tipped Off]

Silvertips Update

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090926/SPORTS/709269883/1003/SPORTS08#Silvertips.Update

Today’s game
Opponent: Vancouver Giants
When: 7:05 p.m.
Where: Comcast Arena, Everett
Radio: KRKO (1380 AM)

Scouting report

Tonight is Everett’s home opener, as well as the Tips’ second straight game against the Giants. Everett (1-1-0-0) beat the Giants in Vancouver 4-2 last Saturday in Vancouver’s home opener.

The Giants (2-1-0-0 going into Friday night’s home game against Prince George) are once again one of the favorites in the Western Conference this season. However, Vancouver has a younger team this season and is not the overwhelming favorite it’s been in recent seasons.

Vancouver has a pair of 19-year-old veterans leading the forward line in left wing Craig Cunningham (two goals, three assists) and center Lance Bouma (two goals, two assists). But the Giants have several missing pieces. Twenty-year-old right wing Garry Nunn is out with a broken leg, 19-year-old center James Wright has not yet been returned by the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, and it’s still unknown whether Vancouver will get star 18-year-old left wing Evander Kane back from the Atlanta Thrashers.

At the back a rebuilt defense is led by 19-year-old rookie Kevin Connauton (one goal, three assists), who was enticed away from the NCAA. In goal 18-year-old Jamie Tucker (1-1-0-0, 3.95 goals against average, .852 save percentage) is still looking to prove he can be a No. 1.

[Tipped Off]

From NP's blog
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090925/BLOG12/909259977#Random.thoughts.heading.into.the.home.op ener

Random thoughts heading into the home opener

Posted at 4:11 pm by Nick Patterson

It's a rare Friday night off for the Tips. It's also the day before the home opener, and after a flurry of activity during the first week of the season Everett's roster finally appears set. Seems like a good time to take stock, as well as share some other random thoughts:

- From the "Much Ado About Nothing" file, what a strange little trip Everett's offseason overager search turned out to be. In April, Everett general manager Doug Soetaert declared Shane Harper, Zack Dailey and Shayne Brown as Everett's overagers for the 2009-10 season. When injuries prodded Brown into retirement, Everett's scramble to find a replacement started to look like something out of "The Fugitive" (search every farmhouse, hen house, outhouse ...), with Alex Poulter, Colin Scherger and Travis Dunstall all picked up off waivers at some point. After much deliberation and debate about the overager situation among observers, the Tips ended up trading for Chris Langkow and returning the Poulter, Scherger and Dunstall to the waiver wire. Kind of a roundabout way to trade for a third overager, don't you think?

- Speaking of Langkow, I'm curious just how much he's going to bring to the Tips. He arrives with the reputation of a hard-working two-way center who has enough skill to contribute to the offense, but not lead it. With its top five scorers returning from last season, Everett doesn't really need Langkow to be an offensive leader. However, I'm sure Harper wouldn't mind having a complementary skill player on his line. Can Langkow be that guy?

- Langkow cost the Tips third- and sixth-round picks in the bantam draft, a price that's a little high for an overager. Or is it? I'm starting to wonder about the value of bantam draft picks beyond the first round. Give this exercise a try sometime. Find a WHL roster. Eliminate the first-round bantam picks and the Euros. Now, among everyone who's left, count the number who were drafted and the number who weren't. I can't speak for other teams, but for Everett the drafted players only outnumber the undrafted 10-7, and the undrafted include last season's co-MVP, two NHL draft picks and the No. 1 goalie. I have no idea if this type of ratio extends to other teams (feel free to check it out yourself and let me know the results), it might just be an anomaly. But it does make me think.

- Everett's big question mark going into the season was defense after the departures of longtime Tips Taylor Ellington, Graham Potuer and Mike Alexander. But having now had the opportunity to see newcomers Rasmus Rissanen, Radko Gudas and Ryan Murray in action during games that count, I think Everett has itself covered. The Tips think their defense is going to be better this season than it was last season. I don't know if I'm ready to commit to that just yet, but I'm a believer in the newcomers.

- Personally, I am thrilled Kyle Beach is back in the U.S. Division with Spokane. From a reporter's standpoint Beach is pure gold as he's an endless source of material. However, over the course of two-and-a-half seasons it got a little tedious pulling the same bucket out of the well time after time. I'm thinking having Beach involved in 10 Everett games instead of 72 may just create that happy medium.

[Tipped Off]

My first home opener missed since the Tips started. I was up in the mountains. My Wife was there. She said it was a very exciting game. Here is the story from Heraldnet.com

Silvertips win after Dailey's magic act

Forward's fluke goal ties score; Everett wins in shootout

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer

EVERETT — It wasn't quite how Zack Dailey scripted it.

But good things happen to those who work for it, and the Everett Silvertips captain was the beneficiary Saturday night.

Dailey's fluke goal with one minute remaining in regulation tied the score, and the Tips went on to win in a shootout as they defeated the Vancouver Giants 4-3 in a thrilling home opener at Comcast Arena.

An electric crowd was on hand for the home opener and they were treated to an exciting up-and-down, back-and-forth contest. But it looked like they'd be consigned to disappointment when J.T. Barnett scored his second goal of the game with five minutes remaining to give Vancouver a 3-2 lead.

However, Dailey pulled a rabbit out of a hat with 1:00 remaining. The Tips had just pulled goaltender Thomas Heemskerk for an extra skater when Dailey shot from the right slot. The shot was deflected by a stick and looped harmlessly into the air. But Vancouver goalie Jamie Tucker never saw the puck, and it fluttered over his head and into the net, tying it up.

“It wasn't quite planned that way,” Dailey said with a chuckle.

“If you keep working the bounces will go your way. We got a lucky bounce there.”

The game eventually went to a shootout, where Tyler Maxwell and Shane Harper scored for the Tips and Heemskerk stopped three attempts to give Everet the full points.

Dan Iwanski and Radko Gudas also scored in regulation for Everett (2-1-0-0), which is in the unusual position of having 10 days off before its next game. Heemskerk had a strong game in net, making 34 saves.

But it was Dailey who earned all the plaudits from Everett coach Craig Hartsburg following the game.

“It's fitting our best player, our hardest-working player, our most unselfish player gets the break of the game,” Hartsburg said. “It's a good lesson for the rest of our players. If you work like that, compete like that and play for the team, you'll probably get some rewards for it.”

James Henry scored in regulation and also was the lone player to convert in the shootout for Vancouver (3-1-0-1), which nearly turned the tables on Everett. The Tips spoiled Vancouver's home opener a week earlier, overturning a 2-0 deficit before winning 4-2. The Giants trailed 2-0 Saturday before grabbing their late lead.

“I thought it was an exciting game,” Vancouver coach Don Hay said. “We knew Everett would come out hard and they didn't disappoint. We hung in there and I was happy with the way our guys responded. Kind of a weird goal to tie it up, but bizarre plays happen here because of the crowd and the loudness of the building. It was a good game for our guys to get better in.”

Tucker finished with 30 saves.

The Tips looked like they were going to run away with it when they went ahead 2-0 after 11 minutes. Iwanski scored short-handed 3:36 into the game when Vancouver's Kevin Connauton couldn't hold the puck in the zone, allowing Iwanski to race away on a breakaway and score on a nice move to his backhand. Gudas made it a two-goal lead at 10:26 on the power play when he delayed his shot while drifting in from the right point, then fired past Tucker.

Vancouver worked itself back into contention and took the lead on a trio of rebound goals, one in each period. Henry's rebound goal after the Tips struggled to clear the zone tied it at 5:15 of the second period. Then Barnett picked a loose puck out and scored with 4:59 remaining to give the Giants the lead.

But the Giants couldn't account for Dailey.

“It was our own doing,” Hartsburg said of losing the lead. “We got kind of brain dead for a while there, made some poor decisions and got uncompetitive around the puck, and they took the game.

“There were parts of the game where we played very well, there were parts where we were standing around and not doing the right things,” Hartsburg added. “We still have a lot of work to do. We want to play 60 minutes and we're still not there yet.”

Silvertips 4, Giants 3 (SO)

Vancouver 1 1 1 0 —3

Everett 2 0 1 0 — 4

Everett won shootout 2-1

First Period—1, Everett, Iwanski 1 (de la Lande, Dailey), 3:36 (sh). 2, Everett, Gudas 3 (Murray, Langkow), 10:26 (pp). 3, Vancouver, Barnett 5 (Cunningham, Bouma), 12:07. Penalties—Langkow, Everett (interference), 2:12; Henry, Vancouver (slashing), 6:28; Cunningham, Vancouver (tripping), 9:38; Tochkin, Everett (tripping), 16:46.

Second Period—4, Vancouver, Henry 2 (Scheidl, Bouma), 5:15. Penalties—Barnett, Vancouver (hooking), 2:46; Abney, Everett (tripping), 13:07; Henry, Vancouver (interference), 13:10; Gallagher, Vancouver (tripping), 17:24.

Third Period—5, Vancouver, Barnett 6 (Piluso, Manning), 15:01 (pp). 6, Everett, Dailey 1 (Harper, Gudas), 19:00. Penalties—Henry, Vancouver (holding), 12:37; Maxwell, Everett (hooking), 13:34.

Overtime—No goals. Penalties—none.

Shootout—Everett 2 (Tochkin NG, Maxwell G, Froese NG, Harper G), Vancouver 1 (Cunningham NG, Henry G, Gallagher NG, Piluso NG).

Shots on goal—Vancouver 13-12-9-3—37. Everett 9-11-9-4—33. Power-play opportunities—Vancouver 1 of 5. Everett 1 of 6.

Goalies—Vancouver, Tucker 2-1-0-0 (33 shots, 30 saves). Everett, Heemskerk 1-0-0-0 (37 shots, 34 saves).

A—6,379.