EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips met with immediate success by winning the Western Conference in their inaugural season and have never missed the postseason in their 15-year history.
But reaching the the Western Conference finals is new territory for this particular group. Everett’s 4-0 victory over Portland Friday night dispatched the Winterhawks in five games and propelled the Tips to the conference finals for the first time in a dozen years —the longest third-round drought among the five U.S. Division teams.
“I can’t really describe it,” said third-year Tips defenseman Jake Christiansen, who had two goals in Friday’s series clincher. “It was always hard losing in the second round with the teams we had, but this team is better. It’s awesome.”
The Tips did so by vanquishing the two teams that have eliminated them the past three years with a first-round win over Seattle followed by the victory over Portland.
The second-round victory was particularly impressive given how the series started. The Winterhawks thoroughly dominated the Silvertips in a 5-2 Game 1 rout at Angel of the Winds Arena that prompted some immediate soul-searching by the U.S. Division champions.
“They took it to us — we were chasing the game,” head coach Dennis Williams said. “Portland is a very good hockey team. They are well-coached, they have a lot of big-time players, they have (defensemen) that can get up the ice better than any (defensemen) in the league. You lose to good teams and I think everybody thought, or was hoping around here we’d just win four straight. It’s not that easy, especially against a good squad like Portland.”
Goaltender Carter Hart turned in a less-than-stellar effort as he allowed a pair of rebound goals and a soft late goal by Cody Glass in the third period. But as he has done throughout his career, Hart bounced back with a superb effort in Game 2 when he turned aside 26 shots in a 6-0 shutout victory that evened the series at 1-1.
“You just gotta realize it’s a best-of-seven and it’s the first team to four (wins),” Hart said. “The first game was not the way we wanted things to happen, but it’s hockey and you never know what can happen. You just have to move on and we put things behind us after that.”
Hart went on to save 40 of 42 shots in a 6-2 Game 3 win, and stole Game 4 with a 42-save performance in a 3-2 win thanks in part to some late-game heroics by his offense. Hart then battled through illness that cost him half of the second period in Game 5 before returning in the third to combine with backup Dustin Wolf in a 4-0 shutout to clinch the series.
“I think it’s a testament to our players and our group,” Williams said. “Portland is a very good hockey club and we snuck one out down there on Thursday and (Friday) I thought we had a much better effort and a much better game. We played more of our style (Friday night). I thought we skated and put pucks in the right areas and tracked pucks hard.”
Hart’s postseason numbers following the second round mimic those from his historic regular season. He has a save percentage of .944 and a goals-against average of 1.92 — and that includes two uncharacteristic five-goal games in Everett’s two postseason defeats.
For all of his regular-season accolades and success, Hart had never led the Tips on a long postseason run — until now.
“That’s the way I wanted things to happen,” Hart said. “Chats we’ve had over the year with management and with other people and just the team we’ve created and the people we’ve brought in and the way we’ve worked all year together, we know we had a team that could go far and it can do anything. It’s going to be exciting.”
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