Silvertips’ Green vs. Grey game has plenty of action

EVERETT — The scene was set for a comeback for the ages. But in the end that comeback came inches short.

The Grey team staved off a tremendous late rally by the Josh Winquist-led Green team, holding on to win 6-5 in the Everett Silvertips’ annual Green vs. Grey game Sunday afternoon at Comcast Arena.

Grey, behind two goals each from overage veteran Reid Petryk and 16-year-old prospect Patrick Bajkov, dominated the first two periods and threatened to run away with the game.

But Green rallied in the third and nearly made a miraculous comeback in the final two minutes. Winquist, Everett’s leading scorer from last season, scored twice in the final 1:10 with the goalie pulled to make it a one-goal game.

Then with 5.6 six seconds remaining, Green’s Kohl Bauml won a face-off in the Grey zone right back to Winquist at the top of the circle. Winquist got off a good shot, but Grey goaltender Austin Lotz got a piece of his pad on the puck to preserve the victory.

“I couldn’t really get a good shot to the net, so I just tried to bank it off his pad,” Winquist said. “But Lotzy had good rebound control and sent it to the corner. There was just so much traffic I couldn’t’ really shoot where I wanted to. I just tried to shoot for a rebound and it didn’t quite work out.”

Said Petryk: “It got a little scary at the end, but we pulled off a W. The game was good. I thought the guys were going hard. It was a little chippy at times, but it was all in good fun.”

Logan Aasman and Mirco Mueller also scored for Grey. Mario Petit picked up the win in goal by stopping all eight shots he faced in the second period.

Winquist and 15-year-old Patrick Khodorenko both scored twice for Green. Keyvan Mokhtari, another 15-year-old, scored the other goal for Green as the youngsters acquitted themselves well Sunday. Bajkov, Khodorenko and Mokhtari all scored impressive goals in which they beat their defender before scoring past the goaltender.

“We have really good young guys,” Petryk said. “The scouts did a real good job finding some young guys and they pulled their own weight today, that’s for sure.”

The game also featured the training camp debut of Tyson Jost, Everett’s first-round pick in this year’s bantam draft. The 15-year-old center, who was selected seventh overall, didn’t attend the first three days of training camp because of a scheduling conflict.

The Green vs. Grey game concluded a training camp that allowed new head coach Kevin Constantine his first in-person look at what he has to work with this season.

“I can’t tell exactly where we’re at as a team until I also see the other 21 teams in the league play, so you have to start having games against other teams before you know that,” Constantine said. “Especially for me, since I haven’t been in the league for six years. But it’s a good group of guys. The first stage is getting to know the players and their skills and their faces and their style of play. Starting (today) we start coaching and it will be another stage of learning what our players are all about.”

Slap shots

Four veterans who suffered minor injuries during training camp did not play Sunday, those being forwards Manraj Hayer, Ty Mappin and Mitch Skapski and defenseman Micheal Zipp. … Lotz allowed three goals on 15 shots in the third period. Those were the first goals Everett’s No. 1 netminder allowed in training camp as he was perfect during four scrimmages. … Talented 16-year-old forward Alec Mehr did not play in the Green vs. Grey Game. Mehr, one of the standouts during training camp, returned home without signing a WHL education contract with the Tips. … Everett made no official announcement of roster cuts following Sunday’s game.

Grey 6, Green 5

Green 2 0 3 — 5

Grey 2 4 0 — 6

First Period—1, Green, Khodorenko 1, 1:54. 2, Grey, Aasman 1, 9:56. 3, Grey, Bajkov 1, 11:08. 4, Green, Mokhtari 1 (Fyten), 18:32. Penalties—none.

Second Period—5, Grey, Petryk 1 (Sandhu, Raymond), 1:50. 6, Grey, Mueller 1, 9:51. 7, Grey, Bajkov 2 (White), 10:01. 8, Grey, Petryk 2, 11:26. Penalties—Nobach, Grey (hooking), 11:57; MacDonald, Grey (holding), 18:49.

Third Period—9, Green, Khodorenko 2 (Durflinger), 12:21. 10, Green, Winquist 1 (Stadnyk), 18:50 (pp). 11, Green, Winquist 2 (Bauml, Penner), 19:27. Penalties—Mueller, Grey (high sticking), 3:21; Durflinger, Green (cross checking), 6:16; Lotz, Grey (delay of game, served by Bajkov), 12:47; Durflinger, Green (slashing), 15:28; MacDonald, Grey (slashing), 16:55.

Shots on goal—Green 5-8-15—28. Grey 10-13-6—29. Power-play opportunities—Green1 of 5. Grey 0 of 2.

Goalies—Green, Cotton (10 shots, 8 saves), Stone 0-1 (13 shots, 9 saves), Amundrud (6 shots, 6 saves). Grey, Hart (5 shots, 3 saves), Petit 1-0 (8 shots, 8 saves), Lotz (15 shots, 12 saves).

Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.