Expansion Silvertips talking division title

Published 9:00 pm Friday, December 26, 2003

EVERETT – It’s midway through the season and so far the Everett Silvertips have been the Western Hockey League’s biggest surprise.

A surprise to everyone, that is, except the Silvertips themselves.

Everett returns from its Christmas break tonight at home against the Seattle Thunderbirds, and when the Tips take the ice, they do so as the shock team of the league.

“Right from day one we wanted to be a competitive team in this league and I think right now we’re establishing ourselves as a pretty dominant team,” Everett defenseman Mitch Love said. “We play a tight-checking game and I think we’ve really come into our own. I know people outside this dressing room probably thought we wouldn’t be where we are today, but those people don’t matter and the people in this dressing room do, so I think that’s the main thing.”

Thirty-three games into the 72-game schedule, first-year Everett is above .500 at 14-13-5-1 – The WHL’s previous expansion team, the Vancouver Giants in 2001-02, managed just 13 wins the entire season – and the Tips find themselves right in the middle of the U.S. Division race.

But while Everett’s success has been a surprise to everyone else in the league, it hasn’t been a surprise to the Silvertips. It was all part of the master plan from the start.

“When we first met in July, the big thing that we talked about was that we thought we could win the division and make the playoffs,” center Riley Armstrong said. “I think right now we’re all thinking it’s possible.”

So far so good. Everett has 34 points, good for fourth place in the Division. The Tips are eight points behind division-leading Tri-City, five behind second-place Portland and three behind third-place Spokane. However, Everett has played seven fewer games than Tri-City and two fewer than Portland and Spokane.

“I like where we’re at right now,” goalie Jeff Harvey said. “We’ve got a lot of games in hand on Tri-City, and Portland and Spokane are still up there. But I think we can slide up the division and keep knocking off teams in front of us.”

The Tips have been solid against their divisional foes this season. So far Everett is 8-7-4 against division rivals. In their first meeting against each U.S. Division team, the Tips were outscored a combined 17-5, going 0-3-1 in that span. Since then they’ve outscored their divisional opponents 29-27, going 8-4-3. As a result, the Tips are thinking the unthinkable for an expansion team: a division championship.

“We’re always striving to be the best team in the division,” Harvey said. “I think first place is very attainable and that’s what we want. We’re not going to be satisfied with anything else.

“I like the way we stack up (against the other teams in the division),” Harvey added. “I like the way we play in the U.S. Division for one. It’s tight hockey and I think that benefits us right now because we seem to win the tight games.”

But does a team that’s already made tremendous strides – Everett began the season 0-4-1, being outscored 18-6, but is 14-9-4-1 with a plus-two goal difference since – still have room for further improvement?

“There’s so much more to learn,” Armstrong said. “(Head coach Kevin) Constantine and (assistants John Becanic and Jay Varady) probably have some more tricks up their sleeves, some more drills and some more plans. So I think we still have a lot more learning to do as the season goes along.”

The Tips will need to continue to improve in the second half to make a run at the division title.

“This division is so tight right now that we really want to come out strong in the second half,” Love said. “The pace picks up a little bit, it’s more of a playoff-type hockey, and we just want to win more games than we lose and position ourselves for the playoffs. Our main goal is to hang a banner on the ceiling before the end of the year.”