Stick challenge was unusual, unsuccessful

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, January 13, 2004

EVERETT – How important was Sunday’s Western Hockey League game between the Everett Silvertips and the Portland Winter Hawks?

Important enough for Portland coach Mike Williamson to dig deep into his bag of tricks.

Twice in the final six minutes of the game Portland challenged the legality of Everett players’ sticks, earning power plays both times.

First, with Everett leading 2-1, Portland challenged Martin Ruzicka’s stick and Ruzicka was penalized with 5 minutes, 55 seconds remaining. Then Portland challenged Marc Desloges stick with 2:21 left and earned another power play.

“I thought it was kind of outrageous because it wasn’t a playoff game, it was just a regular season game,” Desloges said. “To have two of those back-to-back, I’ve never seen that before. It was kind of crazy.”

However, the moves backfired. Not only did Portland fail to score on either power play, Everett’s Barry Horman scored a shorthanded goal during the first penalty to increase the lead to 3-1, which turned out to be the final score. With the victory, Everett solidified its position in third place in the U.S. Division, moving three points ahead of Portland.

Despite the unusual nature of the calls, Everett coach Kevin Constantine expressed no hard feelings towards the Winter Hawks.

“I have nothing negative to say about going for that other than the statement it makes, which is how important those games are for that team,” Constantine said. “The only consolation in them doing that is we’re a first-year team that teams are desperate enough to beat that they’re pulling every single trick out of the book. So in a way it’s a compliment to you that at this point they’re trying to do everything. That’s one of their options, more power to them. They’re doing everything they can to win, which is what you would admire in another team.”

Now in goal: With three more days until their next game – Friday at home against Tri-City – the Silvertips had a casual practice Tuesday that was more about fun than preparation. As a result, there were some unusual sights on the ice at the Everett Events Center. Among them were seeing assistant coach Jay Varady and goalie Michael Wall skating for one team, as well as the presence of center Riley Armstrong in one goal.

But perhaps the biggest surprise was in the opposite goal, where Constantine donned the goalie pads for just the second time in 20 years.

Constantine, who was a goalie during his playing days, made some good saves. He also took a long time getting back to his feet each time after going down.

“I was looking out of shape was how I was looking,” was how Constantine evaluated is performance.

“Other than the fact I could hardly breathe and being out of shape, it was a lot of fun.”

The other time Constantine played in goal in the last 20 years: during a secret workout with NHL superstar Mario Lemieux prior to his most recent comeback four years ago.

Stat update: Everett is inching closer to shedding the tag of the WHL’s lowest-scoring team.

Everett now has 87 goals in 43 games and going into Tuesday’s games trailed Regina and Saskatoon by just six. Saskatoon had played 44 games, Regina 46.

Chad Bassen continues to lead the team in scoring with 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists) and John Dahl still leads in goals with 16. Dahl is also tied for the league lead in game-winning goals with seven. He and Barry Horman (10 goals, 16 assists) are tied for second on the team with 26 points.

Jeff Harvey remains near the top of the league in goaltender rankings. He’s second in goals against average (2.03) and fourth in save percentage (.924).

Mitch Love is first on the team in scoring among defenseman (13 points), first in penalty minutes (105) and is tied with Curtis Billsten for first in plus/minus rating (plus-5).

As a team, the Silvertips are second in penalty killing (88.6 percent) and 19th on the power play (13.4 percent).