Silvertips skate by Oil Kings

Published 10:30 pm Saturday, February 5, 2011

EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips were taught a lesson Friday night.

Saturday night they showed that lesson was absorbed.

Finding themselves in the exact same situation that turned sour 24 hours earlier, the Silvertips this time put the clamps down, defeating the Edmonton Oil Kings

3-1 at Comcast Arena.

Everett went into the third period leading Edmonton 2-0. That was the same score the Tips led Seattle going into the third period Friday night at Comcast Arena. Everett coughed up the lead against the T-birds and ended up losing 3-2 in overtime.

But this time Everett made sure there was no third-period drama. Markus McCrea converted after a nice play by Josh Winquist early in the third period to put the game on ice. Then the Tips faced little danger until T.J. Foster spoiled Kent Simpson’s shutout bid on the power play with just 6.6 seconds remaining.

“Before we went out for the third I asked them, ‘Have you guys learned anything from last night? We’ll find out,’” Everett coach Craig Hartsburg said. “They did, they did a good job. They came out right and it was a good step in the right direction.”

Said Simpson: “Obviously we learned from yesterday, and that’s always a positive when you learn from things that happened.”

Rasmus Rissanen and Cody Fowlie also scored for Everett (23-23-4-4), which continued its string of positive results. Since falling into the Western Conference cellar on Jan. 26, the Tips have earned 11 of a possible 12 points from their past six games. Everett is now in seventh place in the conference, five points clear of the chasing pack.

“It’s been a grinding schedule, we’ve played seven games in 11 days,” Hartsburg said. “We got some important points and we did a good job of getting ourselves back into the race. Now we have to get ready for the next tough stretch of games.”

Simpson produced yet another strong performance in goal for the Tips, finishing with 35 saves. Simpson has played every minute in goal for Everett during the current upswing, stopping 194 of the 203 shots he’s faced, good for a sparkling .956 save percentage.

“The pressure wasn’t bad,” Simpson said of Saturday night’s effort. “The guys in front of me played well. We limited their chances and I kind of took it from there, I guess. It was a good team game all around.”

Laurent Brossoit stopped 19 shots in goal for Edmonton (24-26-1-3), which was finishing up a four-games-in-five-nights road trip through the U.S. Division.

“It’s been a long road trip for us,” Edmonton coach Derek Laxdal said. “Our power play has been struggling, and if you can’t score on the power play you’re going to struggle. That was the big difference in the game tonight, they scored in the first period on the power play. We needed to keep the game close and we didn’t keep it close enough for our liking.”

Edmonton showed a lot of jump early for a team finishing up its road trip through the U.S. Division. However, Simpson held the Oil Kings at bay, and the Tips opened the scoring on the power play with 55.9 seconds remaining in the period. Rissanen’s quick wrister from the point beat a screened Brossoit to give the Tips a 1-0 lead.

Everett then doubled its lead 2:38 into the second period. Jari Erricson created a turnover, giving Josh Birkholz a chance to bear down on goal. Brossoit stopped Birkholz’s backhander, but Fowlie put home the rebound to make it 2-0.

When the Tips played Seattle on Friday, they gave up a goal on the first shift of the third period as the T-birds quickly grabbed momentum. But this time it was Everett that got the early third-period goal. Winquist squeezed past Edmonton defenseman Marek Hrbas along the boards to create a two-on-one. He closed on goal before setting up McCrea crashing at the far post to give Everett the all-important three-goal lead at 3:56.

Slap shots

Saturday marked the return to Comcast Arena of former Tips winger Cameron Abney. Abney played one-and-a-half seasons with Everett before being traded to Edmonton in December of 2009 in exchange for center Clayton Cumiskey. … The Oil Kings were without their promising 16-year-old defenseman Griffin Reinhart, who is out with a wrist injury. With Reinhart out, 15-year-old Mason Geertsen skated for the Oil Kings. Geertsen was selected in the first round of last year’s bantam draft with the pick Edmonton acquired from Everett on draft day. … Foster’s power-play goal ended Everett’s streak of successful penalty kills at 29.

Silvertips 3, Oil Kings 1

Edmonton 0 0 1 — 1

Everett 1 1 1 — 3

First Period—1, Everett, Rissanen 1 (Suer, Winquist), 19:04 (pp). Penalties—Geertsen, Edmonton (holding), 2:22; Birkholz, Everett (tripping), 5:38; Harrison, Everett (roughing), 11:07; Laroque, Edmonton (holding), 17:06.

Second Period—2, Everett, Fowlie 6 (Birkholz, Erricson), 2:38. Penalties—Rachinski, Edmonton (fighting), 4:43; McCrea, Everett (fighting), 4:43; Stanfield, Everett (tripping), 9:09.

Third Period—3, Everett, McCrea 2 (Winquist), 3:56. 4, Edmonton, Foster 20, 19:53 (pp). Penalties—Friesen, Everett (interference), 8:32; Rachinski, Edmonton (goaltender interference), 9:32; Ewanyk, Edmonton (high sticking), 11:39, Ewanyk, Edmonton (high sticking-high sticking), 15:23; Erricson, Everett (tripping), 19:22.

Shots on goal—Edmonton 13-13-10—36. Everett 8-6-8—22. Power-play opportunities—Edmonton 1 of 5. Everett 1 of 6.

Goalies—Edmonton, Brossoit 8-9-0-0 (22 shots, 19 saves). Everett, Simpson 17-16-4-4 (36 shots, 35 saves).

A—6,345.

Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.