The Game
Sometimes your goalie steals a game and sometimes the other goalie steals a game from you. The Everett Silvertips experienced the latter Friday night at Xfinity Arena as Portland Winterhawks goaltender Cole Kehler saved 46 shots in a 4-1 Portland win.
It’s not like Everett netminder Carter Hart was bad. Two of the three goals he allowed came on breakaways and he finished with 26 saves.
The good news for Everett is that it created 47 shots and held Portland to 30 while playing a game more suited to the wide-open Winterhawks style. The bad news is the Tips only got one past Kehler.
Everett was essentially missing its top defensive pairing with both Noah Juulsen and Lucas Skrumeda scratched. That meant Friday’s top pair comprised veterans Kevin Davis and Aaron Irving, while the second and third duos each featured a 16-year-old paired with a 17-year-old.
Skrumeda played a limited role last Sunday, but Juulsen hasn’t practiced or played since last Friday’s 1-0 win over Seattle. Head coach Kevin Constantine said after Friday’s game that Juulsen is now week-to-week with a lower-body injury (initially suffered at World Juniors), so it sounds like the captain could be out for a while.
The defeat sullied another Tips debut as forward Dawson Butt was called up from the 16-U Junior Silvertips squad to fill in for scratched 17-year-old forwards Riley Sutter and Brian King. Butt is a native of Buckley, Wash., and was Everett’s sixth-round bantam pick in 2015. He is the fifth Washington native to play for the Silvertips.
Butt has a strong WHL pedigree. His father, Jamie, played four years in the WHL with the Tacoma/Kelowna Rockets and went on to play two seasons with the now-defunct Tacoma Sabrecats of the now-defunct minor pro West Coast Hockey League. Jamie is now an entrepreneur and president of 4th Line Hockey, a hockey apparel company.
Naturally Dawson debuted Friday on Everett’s fourth line.
The Turning Point
Let’s go with every single one of Everett’s seven power plays. Portland took the lead with a shorthanded goal on Everett’s second penalty halfway through the first period and killed off the remainder.
Three Stars
1. Portland G Cole Kehler: The 19-year-old netminder saved 46 of Everett’s 47 shots.
2. Portland F Evan Weinger: The 19-year-old forward scored the game-winner less than two minutes into the second period.
3. Everett F Dominic Zwerger: The overager scored Everett’s lone goal in the second period.
For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter.
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