Knee injuries bench two key Silvertips

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, October 25, 2005

EVERETT – Just as the Everett Silvertips had found a groove, they’ve been hit by a double hammer blow.

On the heels of having won five of their past six games, the Silvertips received news that key forwards Torrie Wheat and Ondrej Fiala will be sidelined for substantial time because of knee injuries.

Both Wheat, Everett’s captain and leading goal scorer, and Fiala were hurt this past weekend and could miss as much as two months.

“They’re two of our top forwards for sure,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “But these things are going to be a part of every season you have. It’s kind of rare that two of them happen so close together. But over the course of a season injuries are a big part of what happens and you’ve got to learn how to go on.”

Wheat suffered his injury Sunday during Everett’s 5-4 victory at Portland. Fiala suffered his Friday during Everett’s 3-2 loss at Seattle.

“Neither guy was hitting or getting hit,” Constantine said. “Torrie was going in the corner, caught an edge and hit up against the boards. Same thing with Fiala. He was going into a corner to get a loose puck and it was just skates in ruts. So they were both really stranger injuries because there wasn’t really any body contact on either.”

Wheat’s loss in particular is a significant blow. The 20-year-old right wing was Everett’s leading scorer last season with 57 points (25 goals, 32 assists) and leads the Tips in goals this season with seven. After missing two games early in the season with a bruised foot, Wheat has been on fire lately, scoring five goals in his past four games.

“It’s disappointing,” Wheat said. “I started the season with an injury that hampered my play a little bit and I was just starting to feel like I was getting back on track, then this happens. But that’s part of hockey. A little adversity is something you have to deal with.

“It’s early, I can get it out of the way. Hopefully this will be the last one and I can finish strong.”

With Wheat out, Everett has to find someone to fill in on the line with Peter Mueller and Karel Hromas. Wheat, Mueller and Hromas had been extremely effective recently, with the trio accounting for 10 goals and 12 assists in the past four games.

Sixteen-year-olds Zack Dailey and Shane Harper are the most-likely candidates to fill the void. Though small and inexperienced, both have the offensive skills capable of complementing Mueller and Hromas, and both have seen time on that line while Wheat’s been unavailable.

As for the depth issue, the Silvertips already called up 18-year-old Damir Alic to bolster the forward line. But Alic’s addition still gives Everett just 12 healthy forwards. Defensemen Jonathan Harty and Zach Sim helped fill in at forward last season when the team had injury problems up front, but Constantine is still considering other roster additions.

“We don’t want to go long term without having one extra forward around because probably during the next two months there’s going to be bumps and bruises to other forwards,” Constantine said. “We have defensemen who played forward, so we have that option still. But after a couple days and understanding exactly where those other injuries are at, we have to consider whether we should maybe bring back a guy who was one of the last guys released at the end of training camp.”

Among Everett’s final forward cuts were 17-year-old Brennan Zasitko and 16-year-old Matt Meropoulis, who were reassigned, and 19-year-old Michael Szczachor, who was released. Also, released 19-year-old defenseman Derek Lewis played forward for Everett last season.