EVERETT — Not even a lengthy delay could prevent the Everett Silvertips from rolling along.
Everett weathered a 45-minute delay at the beginning of the third period in defeating the Tri-City Americans 2-0 on Friday night at Comcast Arena.
Tyler Sandhu scored, Mirco Mueller added a late empty-net goal and Daniel Cotton stopped all 14 shots he faced as Everett (13-3-2-0) won its third straight. The Tips outshot the Americans 35-14 as Everett compiled big shot advantages in all four games of its four-game home stand.
Cotton’s shutout was his second in his past three starts. He also came 1 minute, 12 seconds away from notching a shutout in the game in between.
Eric Comire kept Tri-City (11-9-0-2) in it with 33 saves. The loss was Tri-City’s first in regulation since Oct. 18 against Portland, a span of seven games.
The game was delayed approximately 45 minutes just 26 seconds into the third period when one of the pink ribbon logos painted into the ice for last Saturday’s Pink the Rink game began coming through to the surface. Two different Zambonis were required to come back onto the ice on multiple occasions to first attempt to seal the logo, then remove it.
Little of note happened during a scoreless first period, in which the Tips outshot the Americans 12-7. The best chances came late when Cotton had to be alert to turn away a deflected shot during a Tri-City power play, then Comrie had to make two good saves in the final five seconds following a late faceoff in the Americans’ zone.
Everett then broke the ice 1:30 into the second period on a beautiful play in transition by a line that’s carried Everett offensively of late. Joshua Winquist played Manraj Hayer into the offensive zone, Hayer took the puck deep and pulled a pass back across the goal for an onrushing Sandhu to put away and give the Tips a 1-0 lead.
Everett then controlled play the remainder of the period, outshooting Tri-City 15-3. However, the Tips had difficulty finding the rebounds, then Comrie made a huge save on Kohl Bauml late in the period when Bauml was in free, and it remained 1-0 going into the third, despite Everett’s 27-10 shot advantage.
After the long delay at the start of the third, Everett returned to the ice a little sluggish, and Tri-City had a couple golden opportunities to tie it while short-handed. First, early in the period, Lucas Nickles had a clean breakaway, but he was denied by a good save by Cotton. Then later in the period the Americans broke two-on-one, but Braden Purtill couldn’t get a stick on the pass with the net gaping.
Everett then clinched it with 1:17 remaining as, with Comrie pulled for an extra attacker, Mueller was able to find the net from just behind the red line to make the victory secure.
Slap shots
Everett welcomed winger Dawson Leedahl back to the lineup. Leedahl sat out the previous two games because of a suspension handed down by the league for his checking-from-behind major penalty against Brandon last Friday. … Tri-City played without three forwards who have been regulars this season — overager Philip Tot, Marcus Messier and Ty Comrie — because of undisclosed reasons.
Silvertips 2, Americans 0
Tri-City000— 0
Everett011—2
First Period—no goals. Penalties—Everett bench (too many men, served by Fonteyne), 17:49.
Second Period—1, Everett, Sandhu 5 (Hayer, Winquist), 1:30. Penalties—Leedahl, Everett (hooking), 3:36; McAndrews, Tri-City (tripping), 6:00.
Third Period—2, Everett, Mueller 2 (Nikolishin), 18:43 (en). Penalties—Plutnar, Tri-City (kneeing), 3:57; McAndrews, Tri-City (high sticking), 12:21.
Shots on goal—Tri-City 7-3-4—14. Everett 12-15-8—35. Power-play opportunities—Tri-City 0 of 2. Everett 0 of 3.
Goalies—Tri-City, E. Comrie 9-8-0-2 (34 shots, 33 saves). Everett, Cotton 4-1-1-0 (14 shots, 14 saves).
A—4,048.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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