Hart stonewalls Chiefs, Silvertips takes commanding 3-1 series lead

SPOKANE — Carter Hart’s first crack at the WHL came at Spokane Arena, and it was the bitter taste of defeat.

Suffice it to say Hart’s now created some better memories of Spokane.

The Everett Silvertips goaltender played his second straight stellar game at Spokane Arena, turning aside 34 shots to lead the Tips to a 3-1 victory over the Spokane Chiefs on Friday night in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series. The win gave the Tips a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

“The boys battled hard throughout the whole game,” said Hart, who was at his absolute best during a stretch of the first period in which the Tips had to kill off more than five consecutive minutes of penalties, including nearly a minute of five-on-three. “We had some adversity with some PKs, but we battled through, got some shot blocks, and played great throughout the whole game.”

The 16-year-old rookie made his first career start at Spokane last season as a 15-year-old call-up, a game that ended as a 5-3 defeat. He didn’t see the ice again in Spokane until Wednesday’s 2-1 double-overtime victory in Game 3.

But Hart was stellar in Games 3 and 4 to help Everett take control of the series. In the two games combined he allowed just two goals on 81 shots through seven-plus periods of play. This after he was pulled just 11 minutes into Game 2.

“He was very good,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said of Hart. “He didn’t have a very good game in Game 2, and he responded the way a competitive athlete should respond by really being ready to dig in and compete. So he did a nice job.”

The Tips also received a breakout performance from Nikita Scherbak, the team’s leading scorer during the regular season. The first-round NHL draft pick, who managed just one assist in the first three games, made two pro-level plays to finish with a goal and an assist. Brayden Low was on the other end of each of those Scherbak plays, also notching a goal and an assist.

“That line’s a good line, they’ve been a good line for us ever since they got put together,” Constantine said, referring to Scherbak, Low and Remi Laurencelle. “They were getting some opportunities earlier without any reward. Tonight they got a couple goals out of it. They work hard and they play a lot for us, so it’s nice to see them have some success.”

Logan Aasman scored the other goal for Everett, which can close the best-of-seven series out with a win in Game 5 Saturday in Everett.

Kailer Yamamoto scored the lone goal for Spokane. Garret Hughson made 19 saves in net for the Chiefs.

“If we expect to win games, we need more guys that compete harder,” Spokane coach Don Nachbaur said. “The end result is we don’t get enough goals. If we’re going to score, we have to get that puck to the net. Again, we let up in areas to score.”

The game could easily have gotten away from Everett in the first period. Low was given a double-minor for cross checking and charging, giving Spokane four minutes on the power play. Then with 56 seconds remaining on the penalties, Tristen Pfeifer was called for checking from behind to hand the Chiefs a lengthy five-on-three.

However Everett’s penalty kill, which struggled mightily against the Chiefs during the regular season, came up big. The Chiefs had plenty of possession in the Tips zone during those five minutes, but Hart and company managed to keep the puck out. Everett killed off four penalties in the period.

“I thought we were really fortunate to get out of the first,” Constantine said. “We took some penalties — the four-minute, that’s a long time to have to kill. Then being down three-on-five you have to figure that out. So I thought the key to the game was coming out of the first period without being down.”

The Tips then responded in the second by scoring the game’s first goal for the first time in the series. Graham Millar got the puck on net on the rush, and in the ensuing melee Aasman jammed the puck at the post from behind the goal line. Somehow it ended up behind Hughson and in the net to give the Tips a 1-0 lead at 2:21.

Then Scherbak went to work. He doubled Everett’s lead at 14:54 of the second on a nice play in transition. The Spokane crowd was still oohing a big hit by Devon McAndrews when the Tips broke two-on-one. Brayden Low made a nice centering feed from the left to Scherbak, who worked quick hands to deke around Hughson and tuck the puck into the corner to make it 2-0.

Then Scherbak turned creator to make it 3-0 6:48 into the third. He used his speed to blow around Spokane defenseman Jordan Henderson on the right, then he backhanded a feed out front that Low redirected under Hughson.

The Chiefs finally beat Hart on their seventh power play of the game with 9:07 remaining. Everett twice failed to clear the puck, and Yamamoto eventually put home a rebound to give Spokane a glimmer of hope. But Everett did a good job salting the remainder of the game away to take a commanding lead in the series.

Slap shots

Everett played without overage defenseman Ben Betker for the second straight game. Betker suffered an upper-body injury early in Game 2. He skated during Everett’s informal practice Thursday, but was deemed not ready to return just yet. … The Tips also played without key defensive winger Dawson Leedahl. Leedahl, who took the warm-up, was a late scratch for undisclosed reasons. … With Betker and Leedahl both out, Everett gave a playoff debut to call-up defenseman Jantzen Leslie, the team’s first-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft. With Leslie in the lineup the Tips had seven defensmen dressed, with Jordan Wharrie being deployed as a forward.

Silvertips 3, Chiefs 1

Everett 0 2 1 — 3

Spokane 0 0 1 — 1

First Period—no goals. Penalties—Whittingham, Spokane (charging), 1:51; Low, Everett (cross checking-charging), 4:52; Pfeifer, Everett (cross checking), 7:56; Laday, Spokane (kneeing), 10:26; Pfeifer, Everett (checking from behind), 17:40.

Second Period—1, Everett, Aasman 1 (Millar), 2:21. 2, Everett. Scherbak 1 (Low, Juulsen), 11:54. Penalties—Laurencelle, Everett (tripping), 9:09; Fram, Spokane (hooking), 12:24; Aasman, Everett (tripping), 14:42; Juulsen, Everett (cross checking), 19:31; Ka. Yamamoto, Spokane (roughing), 19:31.

Third Period—3, Everet, Low 2 (Scherbak, Laurencelle), 6:48. 4, Spokane, Ka. Yamamoto 1 (Fram, Brooks), 10:53 (pp). Penalties—Helgesen, Spokane (high sticking), 3:20; Scherbak, Everett (hooking), 9:12; MacDonald, Everett (cross checking), 19:22; Whittingham, Spokane (embellishment), 19:22; Bechtold, Spokane (cross checking), 19:27; Juulsen, Everett (roughing), 20:00; Olynek, Spokane (roughing), 20:00.

Shots on goal—Everett 7-10-5—22. Spokane 17-5-13—35. Power-play opportunities—Everett 0 of 5. Spokane 1 of 7.

Goalies—Everett, Hart 3-1 (35 shots, 34 saves). Spokane, Hughson 1-3 (22 shots, 19 saves).

A—5,130.

Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.