EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips wrapped up the Western Hockey League’s U.S. Division title last Saturday when they topped the Victoria Royals 5-2 at home before nearly 8,000 fans.
As the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, Everett’s reward is a first-round playoff matchup against those same Royals, the No. 8 overall seed and the second wild-card entry.
The Tips (44-16-9-3, 100 points) finished 4-0-0-0 against Victoria (37-29-5-1, 80 points) in the season series. The Royals were 0-3-1-0 against Everett.
What follows is a breakdown of the two teams:
Offense
Goals scored: Everett 229 (15th in the WHL), Victoria 239 (t-12th)
Power play: Everett 20.7 percent (11th), Victoria 20.3 percent (13th)
The Tips didn’t crack the top half of the league in goals, but 229 is a vast improvement from the 182 they tallied a season ago. In fact, this year’s total is the fourth-highest total in franchise history and a big reason they were able to hold on to win the division.
Everett received breakout offensive performances from forward Patrick Bajkov (29 goals, 49 assists) and defenseman Kevin Davis (nine goals, 50 assists), and the early-season addition of Dominic Zwerger (28 goals, 27 assists) made the offense far more dynamic. Matt Fonteyne (20 goals, 27 assists) centered the top line, while Noah Juulsen added 12 goals and 22 assists despite missing large chunks of time because of injury and the World Junior Championships.
Fonteyne, Bajkov, Davis and Juulsen are all products of the 2012 bantam draft class that is one of Everett’s most successful to date. Davis’s production was enhanced greatly by quarterbacking the first power-play unit, where he tied for the league lead among defensemen for most power-play assists.
Sunday’s regular-season finale proved costly to Everett’s forward depth, however. Centers Devon Skoleski and Riley Sutter suffered upper-body injuries and left the game early. Head coach Kevin Constantine described their chances to play this weekend as “miniscule” and only slightly better next week when the series shifts to Vancouver Island.
Victoria has players with prodigious totals, including Matthew Phillips (50 goals, 40 assists), Jack Walker (31 goals, 41 assists), Dante Hannoun (25 goals, 39 assists) and Tyler Soy (25 goals, 30 assists). Soy recently returned from an upper-body injury that cost him 13 games and it’s expected that defenseman Chaz Reddekopp (10 goals, 33 assists) will be available for the series after missing several weeks.
The Tips owe much of their offensive success to the power play. That waned late in the season, but picked up in the final week of the regular season and Everett finished 11th in the league on the man advantage.
While Everett doesn’t have any players who put up the prodigious point totals, the Tips do have 11 players with 20 or more points and nine with double-digit goal totals. Victoria also had 11 players with 20-plus points and eight players with double-digit goal totals.
Advantage: Victoria
Defense
Goals allowed: Everett 169 (first), Victoria 219 (t-seventh)
Penalty kill: Everett 85.8 percent (first), Victoria 78.3 percent (13th)
Last year the Royals edged Everett for fewest goals allowed and the result was a Scotty Munro Trophy as the regular-season champion. This year the Tips far outpaced second-place Kamloops by 29 goals for fewest allowed. Everett also finished first in the penalty kill.
The biggest reason for both was goaltender Carter Hart. The reigning WHL and CHL Goaltender of the Year improved from a year ago to fashion a record of 32-11-6-2 and he led the league with a 1.99 goals-against average, a .927 save percentage and nine shutouts. His numbers against Victoria are even better: 4-0, 1.49 GAA and .950 save percentage.
Everett also boasts arguably the deepest group of defensemen in the league, and the acquisition of Aaron Irving helped solidify that back end. Juulsen and Lucas Skrumeda comprise the top pair and there is little drop-off when the Kevin Davis-Jake Christiansen and Aaron Irving-Wyatte Wylie pairs take the ice. So strong is Everett’s defensive unit, rookies Montana Onyebuchi and Kyle Walker have been healthy scratches for most of the past month.
During the regular season Everett largely held Victoria’s elite scorers off the board. Soy, Phillips, Reddekopp and Hannoun were all goal-less in the four-game season series. Walker scored both goals in Everett’s 4-2 at Victoria last Friday.
Victoria is no slouch on the defensive end either and much of that credit goes to goalie Griffen Outhouse. The top Royals netminder has a record of 34-24-4-1 with a 2.85 GAA, a .915 save percentage and four shutouts. However, he wasn’t particularly sharp against Everett except for a 40-save performance in a 2-1 Tips overtime win back on Oct. 29. Outhouse’s overall numbers against Everett are 0-2-1, 2.70 and .895.
The Royals have a number of strong defensemen and become much stronger if Reddekopp does indeed return. Blue-liners Scott Walford (six goals, 24 assists), Ralph Jarratt (two goals, 19 assists) and Ryan Gagnon (one goal, 18 assists) are key components of Victoria’s defense. Jarratt was listed as week-to-week on last week’s injury report, while fellow defenseman Mitchell Prowse returned last weekend following a bout with the mumps.
Everett had the league’s best defense at midseason and added Irving at the deadline. As long as that unit remains healthy it is formidable, and no opponent will have an advantage here.
Advantage: Everett
Intangibles
Resiliency might be Everett’s best quality. In fact, the Tips seem to possess an almost preternatural ability to meet every challenge they’ve faced this season, whether it be injury, illness, World Juniors or difficult travel.
The Tips blew a two-goal lead late at Portland two weeks ago, rendering every game a must-win. They responded with a 4-1 win at red-hot Kelowna and back-to-back wins against Victoria to clinch the division title.
While a knock on Constantine-coached teams is that they don’t score, four of Everett’s top five season goal totals have come with him in charge. Likewise Everett’s six top defensive seasons in terms of goals allowed have come in his eight seasons.
Both Everett’s offensive and defensive prowess were on display in its four wins against Victoria this season as the Tips outscored the Royals 14-6. You can’t discount that psychological impact.
Advantage: Everett
Overall
The Tips defied every expectation by winning the U.S. Division and earning the Western Conference’s top seed.
Don’t let the seeding fool you: the Western Conference has been extremely competitive all season long. The 20-point differential between top-seeded Everett and eighth-seeded Victoria is the smallest standings gap between a top seed and an eighth seed in the Western Conference during Everett’s 14 years in the WHL. Plus the Royals are getting healthier while the Tips are likely without two of their three top centers for this series.
Expect Victoria to be competitive because the Royals are very good and the playoffs are a different animal. But in the end the Tips’ defense and goaltending win out and Everett reaches the conference semifinals for the third consecutive season.
Prediction: Everett in six
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