Silvertips Notes
Published 9:00 pm Monday, December 27, 2004
Opponent: Spokane Chiefs
When: 7:05 p.m.
Where: Everett Events Center
Radio: KRKO (1380 AM)
Big crowds
If the Everett Events Center has seemed a little bit louder, a tad bit more cramped, than this time last season, that’s because it has been.
In their second season, the Silvertips’ popularity has grown as the average home attendance has grown by more than 1,000 fans per game.
“It’s a credit to the people in this area,” Silvertips director of marketing and sales Zoran Rajcic said. “We’ve had great Wednesdays, we’ve gotten great coverage and these things are helping us tremendously.”
Through November, Everett was averaging 6,142 fans per home contest. That was 1,038 more than last season’s average.
A big part of that has been the increase in season ticket sales. The Silvertips’ goal for season tickets this season was 3,000. Before Christmas they were at nearly 3,400 and expecting to be around 3,500 after Christmas.
And if anything, Rajcic is expecting attendance to increase in the second half of the season, when the Silvertips have more home dates on Friday and Saturday nights, play host to I-5 rival Seattle four times and no longer have to compete with football.
“Our average attendance in February last year was well over 7,000,” Rajcic said. “If we can make those numbers, we could be close to 7,000 for a season-long attendance, which would be very good for us. That would put us right behind Calgary and Vancouver.”
Matic lands in Regina: Former Silvertips forward Jovan Matic has been picked up by the Regina Pats. He was in the lineup for Monday night for Regina’s game at Brandon.
Matic, an 18-year-old from Burnaby, British Columbia, and the scorer of the first goal in Silvertips history, began the season with Everett, but was reassigned to Junior A in early November. He was dropped from Everett’s 50-player protected list prior to the Christmas break and Regina, suffering through a spate of injuries and a 13-game losing streak, picked him up.
Matic had one goal and one assist in 15 games with the Silvertips this season. He had seven goals and seven assists in 51 games with Everett last season.
Scouting report: Spokane went into the Christmas break having picked up its play. After a slow start, the Chiefs (11-16-7-1), though still in last place in the U.S. Division, had closed to within five points of third-place Portland.
In their three meetings this season, Everett and Spokane have one win, one loss and one tie. Most recently the teams played a wild 3-3 tie on Dec. 11 in Spokane in which three goals were scored in the final five minutes with Everett goaltender Leland Irving pulled from the net.
As Spokane has improved, so has its top offensive player, 19-year-old center Chad Klassen. Klassen leads the team in scoring withh 40 points (19 goals, 21 assists) and going into the break he had scored goals in six of the Chiefs’ previous seven games.
Eighteen-year-old left wing Ned Lukacevic (12 goals, 21 assists) has developed into a decent second option for Spokane. Eighteen-year-old Jim Watt (11-13-3, 2.79 goals against average, .908 save percentage) has had a solid season in net.
Nick Patterson, Herald writer
