EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips made a statement Saturday night:
They’re still the team to beat in the WHL’s U.S. Division.
Everett put the rest of the division on notice by running the hottest team in the league out of the building, thrashing the Seattle Thunderbirds 6-0 before a raucous sellout crowd at Xfinity Arena.
“You could say (it was a statement), I guess,” Everett winger Carson Stadnyk said. “We’ve always played these statement games against U.S. Division teams, especially Seattle, which is big rival. I didn’t thing we were going to get six goals on them tonight, but we played a full 60. We were truculent, and it was a lot of fun to playing with the guys tonight.”
Seattle came into the game having gone 9-1-0-1 in its previous 11. That included a huge 5-2 victory at league-leading Kelowna on Friday night.
But from the time Jake Mykitiuk snapped a scoreless tie early in the second period it was all Everett. Stadnyk finished with a goal and two assists, while Ivan Nikolishin, Kohl Bauml, Nikita Scherbak and Dawson Leedahl also found the net for the Tips, who won their fourth straight and seventh in their past eight.
“Every game is statement game, and obviously they’re a huge rival,” Mykitiuk said. “With a sold-out crowd tonight we definitely wanted to give the crowd our best.
“It was definitely an even game for the first little bit, but I thought toward the end of the first period we started taking control,” Mykitiuk added. “As the puck started going in for us the momentum kept going our way.”
Austin Lotz made 31 saves in goal for Everett to record his fourth shutout of the season.
Everett lit up Seattle goaltender Taran Kozun, putting five goals past the league’s leading goalie on 33 shots before Kozun was pulled late in the third period. Danny Mumaugh was scored upon on the only shot he faced in relief for the T-birds (22-17-2-3).
“I’m sure beating Kelowna (Friday) night for (the T-birds) was a pretty emotional win, and then they had to travel, so I think we caught them a little bit tired,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “On our road trip when we beat Brandon 5-0 it was a pretty big win in their building, and the next night we lost. But we still had to do some pretty good things (Saturday) to beat them. They’re a hard team to move through with their big bodies, so we did some good things ourselves during the night.”
Three weeks ago Everett was scuffling as it headed out on its long eastern road trip. After a blistering start to the season, Everett was 7-9-1-0 in the 17 games prior to heading to Saskatchewan, allowing the rest of the division to close within breathing distance in the standings. But the Tips found their form on the road, going 5-1 against the East Division. That form carried over to Everett’s two games upon returning home, and the Tips have stretched their lead out again. Everett is now seven points ahead of second-place Portland, with the rest of the division trailing by double digits.
“Before we went on the road trip we talked about how we were going to bond and get closer as a team,” Stadnyk said. “We did that a lot on the road because you’re with each other all the time in hotel rooms and on the bus. We’ve got a very close group of guys in there, and we’ve become better as a team. We’ve got a good family in there right now.”
After a scoreless first period that saw few scoring chances for either team, Everett made the breakthrough 4 minutes, 38 seconds into the second. Mykitiuk found himself all alone in front and called for the puck. Scherbak responded, threading a pass through traffic, and Mykitiuk pulled the puck to his backhand to score around Kozun to give the Tips a 1-0 lead.
After that Everett had a 3-0 power-play advantage and all kinds of scoring chances the rest of the period — a video review confirmed a no goal, and Remi Laurencelle missed an open net — but it looked like the Tips were going to have to settle for a one-goal lead until the final minute. On the third power play Everett finally got its second goal as Stadnyk whipped a back-door pass for Nikolishin to put away and make it 2-0 with 38.2 seconds remaining.
Everett then squashed any comeback thoughts by scoring 40 seconds into the third. Stadnyk made a reverse pass from behind the Seattle net to Bauml in the slot, and Bauml scored while Kozun was looking the other way to make it 3-0. Everett piled it on from there.
Everett now heads right back on the road, departing Sunday morning for its second long road trip of the month, with four games in five nights against Prince George and Kelowna.
Slap shots
Everett continues to play without winger Logan Aasman, who’s a long-term absentee because of an upper-body injury. … Seattle was still without star center Mathew Barzal because of a long-term knee injury. Barzal is expected to return next Friday at Tri-City. The T-birds were also without center Alexander True, who suffered a broken wrist Tuesday against Spokane. He’s expected to miss three months.
Silvertips 6, Thunderbirds 0
Seattle 0 0 0 —0
Everett 0 2 4 —6
First Period—no goals. Penalties—none.
Second Period—1, Everett, Mykitiuk 2 (Scherbak, Laurencelle), 4:38. 2, Everett, Nikolishin 10 (Stadnyk, Bajkov), 19:21 (pp). Penalties—Ottenbreit, Seattle (holding), 8:59; Hauf, Seattle (hooking), 11:54; Spencer, Seattle (elbowing), 17:40.
Third Period—3, Everett, Bauml 19 (Stadnyk), 0:40. 4, Everett, Scherbak 20 (Laurencelle, Juulsen), 6:26. 5, Everett, Leedahl 7 (Low, Davis), 15:11 (pp). 6, Everett, Stadnyk 16 (Leedahl, Bauml), 17:32. Penalties—Bauml, Everett (delay of game), 7:47; Spencer, Seattle (slashing), 11:52; Lipsbergs, Seattle (high sticking), 14:34.
Shots on goal—Seattle 9-7-15—31. Everett 7-15-13—35. Power-play opportunities—Seattle 0 of 1. Everett 2 of 5.
Goalies—Seattle, Kozun 20-12-2-3 (33 shots, 28 saves), Mumaugh (1 shot, 0 saves). Everett, Lotz 19-9-1-1 (31 shots, 31 saves).
A—8,317
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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