EVERETT — If the Everett Silvertips are to beat the Spokane Chiefs in the first round of the WHL playoffs, they’re going to have to find a way to knock out Spokane’s power.
Spokane’s power play was a huge factor when the teams played during the regular season, and it’s a problem Everett will have to solve if it wants to avoid an upset.
Everett, the U.S. Division champion, is the favorite in the best-of-seven first-round series — which begins Friday night at Xfinity Arena — against Spokane, which finished fourth in the division. However, the eight-game season series was nearly dead even, with the Tips holding a 5-3 advantage and outscoring the Chiefs by just two goals.
And Spokane’s power play was the bane of Everett’s existence during the season series. The Chiefs had one of the league’s best power plays, finishing fourth among the WHL’s 22 teams at 23.7 percent. But against the Tips the Chiefs were even better, converting eight of their 23 opportunities for a blistering 34.8 percent. Spokane scored at least one power-play goal in seven of the eight games between the teams.
“I couldn’t tell you (why Spokane had so much success on the power play),” Everett defenseman Ben Betker said. “They have some good guys over there and we know who they are. We’re trying to figure out their tendencies and our penalty kill is going to be an important part of winning the series.”
Everett’s penalty kill was the team’s biggest weakness during the season. The Tips finished 20th in the league on the kill at 76.6 percent, and that dropped to 65.2 percent against Spokane. Everett tried overhauling its penalty-killing system midway through the season, switching from a box formation to a diamond, but it had little effect on the Tips’ success rate.
Therefore, the Tips have their work cut out against Spokane.
“We weren’t a terribly successful penalty-kill team, and we were even less successful against them,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “Their power play really chewed up our penalty kill, so we’re going to have to at least try to be prepared for that.
“If you talk about the division title, killing a penalty with three minutes to go against Victoria (ensuring the clinching point last Saturday by getting the game to overtime) was huge,” Constantine continued. “If we wouldn’t have had that kill, who knows if we would have the title. So at the right time the penalty kill came through for us. We have to try to have that mentality, that at the right moment in the right game the penalty kill might have to be the difference in how the results of the game turn out. So we have to get to work at that.”
Everett’s chief tormentor, so to speak, has been Adam Helewka. The 19-year-old winger, who was named a second-team Western Conference all-star, was the top offensive performer during the season series, notching eight goals and seven assists in the eight games. Three of those goals came on the power play.
“I think there were lots of ways (Spokane had success on the power play),” said Chiefs defenseman and captain Jason Fram, who led the Chiefs with three power-play assists against Everett. “At the start of the season our power play was ranked really low, but when we finished the year it was high. We got there just by buying into what we were doing, not going off on our own program. When you click as a team, that’s how a good power play works. It’s a huge factor when guys on the ice know where each other is going to be.
“I think it will definitely be a factor in the series,” Fram added. “They’re no doubt looking at us like we’re looking at them, watching video about what went wrong and what went right. They’re gong to be ready. We know we’ve been successful before, but of we’re going to continue our success we can’t vary from what brought us that success.”
Spokane isn’t a team deep in dangerous offensive players, but the power play allows the Chiefs to concentrate those offensive pieces on the ice simultaneously. Helewka pulls the strings from the top of the circle, Calder Brooks causes trouble down low, and Fram distributes from the point.
“I think they have a nice variety of things they can do,” Constantine said. “Obviously Helewka’s a good player, without necessarily having a team plan he can do some things individually. Then you can’t get that done without also having a nice team plan on the power play. They have a nice team plan and some good individual skill within that power play group that can get it done.”
Will Everett find a way to disrupt that plan? The answer to that question just might determine the outcome of the series.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
