EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips have another gear — head coach Kevin Constantine is certain of that.
Now he just wonders when the team will step on the proverbial clutch and shift into that gear.
It didn’t happen Sunday as Dominic Zwerger had a hand in all four Spokane goals en route to first star honors as the Spokane Chiefs defeated the Everett Silvertips 4-1 before 4,733 fans on Star Wars Day at Xfinity Arena.
“We’re playing in fourth gear when we have five gears,” Constantine mused afterward, adding that he was referring to Everett’s 1-4 stretch in its last five games.
“We’re playing at 90 percent and we think we’re playing at 100 percent,” Constantine continued. “We’ve got another gear to give and we’ve got to find that extra gear.”
The team could point to any number of reasons: the 10 games it played in 16 days in the middle part of January, the three games in three nights this weekend, the fact it were missing leading scorer Remi Laurencelle due to suspension following last night’s game misconduct penalty and Brandon Ralph with a hand injury.
Yet the Tips insist those circumstances can be mitigated by increased effort.
“I think the main thing is that we have to show up to play, and (Spokane) wanted it more than we did throughout the game,” center Matt Fonteyne said. “I don’t think we can blame it on Remi being out or whatnot. I guess we had to show up to play.”
Instead it was just the Chiefs who showed up ready to play and earned their second win in seven tries against the Silvertips this season. First-place Everett (29-16-2-2, 62 points) missed an opportunity to extend its lead over second-place Seattle in the division standings.
“Your obligation to me as a team and as an individual is to perform as close as possible to what you’re capable of,” Constantine said. “We’ve said all year that we aren’t going to be an explosive offensive team. So then we have to judge and say, ‘Are we as good as we can be?’ And that’s where I’m talking about our edge as a team, to me, is missing.”
Spokane goaltender Lasse Petersen earned his second victory against the Tips the season with 27 saves as the Chiefs improved to 24-20-3-2 with 53 points.
Fonteyne jumped up to the first line in Laurencelle’s place, and defenseman Jake Christiansen centered the fourth line alongside Spencer Gerth and Yan Khomenko.
“It’s a lot different seeing the ice from a different perspective,” said Christiansen, who played forward as a youngster before switching to defense during his peewee season. “You just have to work harder to make up for stuff. You see the video every day for the forwards as well, so you kind of know what to do.”
Zwerger opened the scoring when he curled in from behind the net from the left side and snuck the puck past Everett goaltender Carter Hart’s left pad for a 1-0 lead at 7:16 in the opening period. Zwerger then set up behind the net and fed Hudson Elynuik for a tap-in goal on the power play at 14:53 that pushed Spokane’s advantage to 2-0.
That wasn’t all for Zwerger, as the Austrian scored to make it 3-0 at 15:47 in the second, and later assisted Keanu Yamamoto 27 seconds into the third for Spokane’s second power play goal to stretch the lead to 4-0.
“(Zwerger) is a good player,” Fonteyne said. “He works extremely hard and that’s why he gets bounces and the points that he does.”
Dawson Leedahl ended Petersen’s shutout bid at 11:43 when he walked in from the left side, collected a pass from Lucas Skrumeda and fired a wrister past Petersen to make it 4-1.
“We had to go harder than we did tonight,” Fonteyne said. “We’re not going to win many games if we show up in the last 10 minutes.”
Hart, who was playing his third straight WHL game and fourth straight including Thursday’s Top Prospects Game in Vancouver, B.C., had 18 saves a losing effort.
Everett outshot the Chiefs 28-22, but finished 0-for-5 on the power play. Spokane was 2-for-3 with the man advantage.
Everett returns to action Wednesday when it plays host to Portland at 7 p.m.
For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter @jessegeleynse.
Chiefs 4, Silvertips 1
Spokane 2 1 1 — 4
Everett 0 0 1 — 1
1st Period—1, Spokane, Zwerger 18 (Elynuik, Ke. Yamamoto), 7:16. 2, Spokane, Elynuik 12 (Zwerger, Fiala), 14:53 (PP). Penalties-Henderson Spo (tripping), 9:02; Skoleski Evt (hooking), 13:29.
2nd Period—3, Spokane, Zwerger 19 (Helgesen, Elynuik), 15:47. Penalties-Miske Spo (high sticking), 3:00; Millar Evt (slashing), 4:28; Stadnyk Evt (inter. on goaltender), 18:38.
3rd Period—4, Spokane, Ke. Yamamoto 14 (Zwerger, Fram), 0:27 (PP). 5, Everett, Leedahl 10 (Skrumeda, Fonteyne), 11:43. Penalties—Kopeck Spo (delay of game), 0:54; Fiala Spo (holding), 2:09; Faith Spo (interference), 7:33.
Shots on Goal-Spokane 6-10-6-22. Everett 8-9-11-28.
Power Play Opportunities—Spokane 2/3; Everett 0/5.
Goalies—Spokane, Petersen 6-4-0-0 (28 shots-27 saves). Everett, Hart 28-15-1-2 (22 shots-18 saves).
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