Vancouver 4, Everett 2
Published 10:29 pm Friday, September 16, 2011
TALKING POINTS
Two weekends ago the Tips made forward progress in each of their three games during the Everett Silvertips Preseason Tournament. Tonight the Tips may have taken a step back. Granted, Everett was playing without its top three forwards, its top defenseman and its No. 1 goalie. But Vancouver was equally short-handed, and the Giants ran the Tips out of the rink during the first and third periods. Vancouver outshot Everett 36-19 in the game. Take out the second period and it was 30-10.
During the first 16 minutes of the game Everett barely had the puck. Vancouver was much crisper, particularly when transitioning the puck, and therefore enjoyed a vast majority of the possession. As a result, whenever the Tips got the puck they had to gain the red line and change, which explains how the Giants at one point had a 12-1 shot advantage.
The consolation from that stretch, as far as Everett is concerned, is that the Tips played physical. They finished their checks and delivered a number of good hits when chasing the puck. Zach McPhee stood out in this regard.
The game evened out during a second period that was played almost exclusively on special teams. The Tips still seemed a little reluctant to pull the trigger while on the power play.
But Vancouver regained control in the third period and it was only a matter of time before the Giants found the breakthrough. Vancouver broke a 2-2 tie with less than six minutes remaining in regulation, and it was an anti-climatic finish as a checking-to-the-head major issued to Tips defenseman Nick Walters gave the Giants a power play the rest of the way.
So more growing pains for the youthful Tips. Everett has just one more preseason game, Saturday’s encounter in Kent with the T-birds, before the games start for real next Friday in Portland.
BOX SCORE
