EVERETT — Eight days of playing against their own teammates was enough for the Everett Silvertips.
The Tips finally got the chance to face another team Friday night, and they held on for a 5-4 victory over the Victoria Royals as the three-day preseason 12th Annual Holiday Inn Classic began before several hundred fans at Xfinity Arena.
“It’s always more fun when there is real competition,” Everett head coach Kevin Constantine said. “It was fun to see how our guys reacted to playing somebody who’s not a buddy.”
Everett built a three-goal lead early in the final period, but Victoria cut the deficit to 4-3 while playing two men down when Chaz Reddekopp scored on a breakaway at 12:26.
Tips veteran Patrick Bajkov answered at 13:04 to push Everett’s advantage back to two.
“You want to lead by example,” Bajkov said. “There was a good play up there – a nice shot from the point, and I was able to find myself in position to tap it in.”
Bajkov’s goal was the difference as Victoria’s Regan Nagy scored with 38 seconds to play to slash the Silvertips’ lead to 5-4.
“At the end there it kind of slipped away, but we managed to pull it together again,” Bajkov said.
Matthew Phillips gave the Royals a 1-0 lead at the 19:00 mark in the opening period, but Everett’s Dawson Leedahl erased Victoria’s brief advantage 15 seconds later.
Carson Stadnyk gave the Tips the lead for good with 11:21 gone in the second with assists from Tyler Fraser and Leedahl.
Gunnar Wegleitner added a second period goal and Yan Khomenko pushed the lead to three when he collected the puck behind the net and brought it around for a 4-1 advantage 51 seconds into the third period.
Keith Anderson scored Victoria’s second goal at 9:13 in the third to cut Everett’s lead to 4-2, and Reddekopp’s breakaway cut Everett’s once-formidable advantage to one. Nagy’s goal again cut the deficit to one, but the Tips were able to hold on during the final seconds despite being out-shot 43-29.
Everett plays Spokane tonight at 7.
Portland 7, Spokane 2
EVERETT — The Winterhawks built a 4-0 midway through the second period and never trailed as they rolled over Spokane Friday afternoon.
Dominic Turgeon scored twice and Rodrigo Abols had three assists for Portland. Caleb Jones, Nick Heid, Alex Schoenborn, Jack Flaman and Reed Morison also scored for the Winterhawks. Schoenborn and Brendan De Jong each had two assists.
Taylor Ross and Curtis Miske scored for Spokane.
Portland plays Tri-City at 11:30 a.m. today.
Tri-City 2, Seattle 0
EVERETT — Vladislav Lukin broke a scoreless tie with a short-handed breakaway goal at 17:26 of the third period, and Parker AuCoin added an empty net goal at 19:31 to complete the scoring.
Americans goaltender Evan Sarthou recorded 16 saves and teammate Beck Warm added 11 as the duo combined for the shutout victory. Seattle goaltender Taz Burman had 32 saves in a losing effort.
Seattle plays Victoria today at 3.
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