Silvertips fall 4-3 in in overtime to Regina

EVERETT — Tuesday games are rare in the WHL.

But overtime games? Not nearly so much, especially for the Everett Silvertips, who fell 4-3 in overtime to the visiting Regina Pats before 3,234 fans Tuesday night at Xfinity Arena.

It was Everett’s fourth overtime contest in its last five games and fifth overtime game in its last seven.

The Tips (24-12-2-2, 52 points) picked up one point in the standings, but Regina forward Cole Sanford potted the game-winner on a power play with three seconds remaining in overtime as the Pats overcame a 3-1 deficit in the only matchup this season between the teams.

The Silvertips, playing their fourth game in five nights, were whistled for an uncharacteristic seven penalties.

“We (usually) take one or two penalties a game and by the time we hit the second period we were up to six,” Everett head coach Kevin Constantine said. “When you’re playing four in five nights and then you tax some of those guys more (on the penalty kill) you lose a bit of your edge to your game. You lose a bit of the energy to your game.”

The final penalty came with 19 seconds remaining in overtime and it proved fatal as Sanford beat Everett goaltender Mario Petit for the game-winner in his first game as a Pat.

“Obviously we had a bunch of power plays in the first that we didn’t connect on,” said Sanford, who was acquired in a deadline deal from Medicine Hat on Sunday. “(Austin) Wagner did a great job to get us on the power play (in overtime) and we capitalized.”

Everett twice led by two goals, including a 3-1 advantage through two periods. Then the Pats’ Adam Brooks scored twice from the left side of the circle, at 9:02 and 14:24 in the third, to tie the game at 3-3.

“We got a little too cute — a little too fancy,” Constantine said. “You gotta make plays in this game to be good and you gotta have confidence to be good. But you gotta make plays based on situations and scores, and so there’s always choices about the plays you make.

“I thought we lost the discipline of making choices that matched the game,” he continued. “And so you just have to careful of playing the game different than what you are as a team. I didn’t like our choices that we made in some offensive situations in the last period.”

Everett scored twice in the opening period on a power play wrister from the left circle from Cole MacDonald and a backhanded flick from Remi Laurencelle on a rebound.

The Tips then went down to three skaters when Lucas Skrumeda and Dawson Leedahl took penalties a minute apart at the end of the first. The Tips killed the first penalty before the first period ended, and killed the second 24 seconds into the second period.

The Pats reached the scoreboard, however, at the 9:11 mark as the Tips’ sixth penalty finally caught up with them. Jake Leschyshyn cut Everett’s lead in half from the left circle for a power play goal that made it 2-1.

Everett regained the two-goal lead when Noah Juulsen found Carson Stadnyk wide open at the left circle with a cross-ice pass. Stadnyk slapped it into the open net at 19:33 in the second and the Tips took a 3-1 lead into the third.

Petit, making just his third start of the season in relief of Carter Hart, recorded 19 saves.

“We got a lot of games coming,” Constantine said. “I don’t think we can play (Hart) every game and Mario has worked hard. He deserves to get opportunities when it’s the right situation and we felt like tonight was the right situation.”

The Silvertips travel to Vancouver on Friday for a game at 7.

Notes: Silvertips forward Devon Skoleski missed his third consecutive game Tuesday after he sustained a concussion during last Friday’s game at Kelowna. He is listed on this week’s WHL injury report as week-to-week… Seattle Seahawks punter Jon Ryan, a Regina native, attended Tuesday’s game. Ryan played midget hockey growing up in Saskatchewan, and once tried out for the Pats.

Pats 4, Silvertips 3

Regina 0 1 2 1 — 4

Everett 2 1 0 0 — 3

1st Period—1, Everett, MacDonald 6 (Juulsen, Laurencelle), 4:06 (PP). 2, Everett, Laurencelle 24 (Stadnyk, Dwyer), 7:31. Penalties-Richards Reg (checking from behind), 2:43; Millar Evt (interference), 4:35; Pfeifer Evt (high sticking), 8:54; Sutter Evt (tripping), 12:56; Sanford Reg (interference), 13:08; Skrumeda Evt (cross checking), 17:25; Leedahl Evt (slashing), 18:24.

2nd Period—3, Regina, Leschyshyn 6 (Harrison, Freadrich), 11:11 (PP). 4, Everett, Stadnyk 10 (Juulsen, Laurencelle), 19:33. Penalties-Zborovskiy Reg (cross checking), 7:45; Winkler Evt (boarding), 9:57; Leschyshyn Reg (cross checking), 16:07.

3rd Period—5, Regina, Brooks 24 (Berg), 9:02. 6, Regina, Brooks 25 (Berg, Harrison), 14:24. Penalties-Schioler Reg (charging), 4:42; Steel Reg (slashing), 16:32.

OT Period-7, Regina, Sanford 22 (Brooks, Hobbs), 4:57 (PP). Penalties—Skrumeda Evt (slashing), 4:40.

Shots on Goal-Regina 8-5-7-3-23. Everett 9-10-7-0-26.

Power Play Opportunities—Regina 2/7; Everett 1/6.

Goalies—Regina, Hollett 7-3-1-0 (26 shots-23 saves). Everett, Petit 1-1-1-0 (23 shots-19 saves).

A-3,234