Final thoughts as Everett Silvertips defeat Portland Winterhawks (and Dawson Leedahl video)
Published 12:13 am Wednesday, March 9, 2016
The Game
The Everett Silvertips dominated the first two periods Tuesday before holding on by their laces in a 3-2 win over the Portland Winterhawks at Xfinity Arena.
The Tips held a 3-0 lead and a 20-14 shot advantage over the listless Winterhawks through 40 minutes. But Everett seemed back on its collective heels once the third period got underway, and Portland scored two power play goals to close within 3-2 with just under seven minutes to play.
The Tips held the Winterhawks at bay for the final six-plus minutes, including the final 1:30 when Portland pulled goalie Adin Hill for a sixth skater.
“We’re not a good mid-week team and we haven’t been all year,” head coach Kevin Constantine said. “Wednesday night have been awful nights for us. But we weren’t happy at all with our performance against Tri(-City on Saturday). In general we haven’t been a good starting team.”
While the Tips are 5-4-2-1 in Wednesday games, they improved to 2-0 in Tuesday games. Their only other Tuesday contest was a 2-0 win against the Kootenay Ice in Cranbrook, B.C., on Nov. 17.
The biggest news was the welcome return of captain Dawson Leedahl, who skated on the second line as Connor Dewar remained on the first line alongside Carson Stadnyk and Remi Laurencelle.
“He’s the captain because people respect him,” Constantine said. “He’s physical so he gives us (that) element. He’s our most physical player in terms of hits. He’s a good skater and great defensive player so there’s a lot of different elements that are important and I think he’ll get even a little better when he gets back in game shape.”
All three Everett goals were things of beauty. Yan Khomenko took the puck from blueline to blueline, letting fly just inside the Portland zone – essentially where the Tulalip Casino orca is located – to beat Hill.
Patrick Bajkov scored on another nice move as he took a blueline pass from Jake Christiansen, sliced into the slot through two defenders to gain a shooting lane, and fired past Hill.
“Jake made a pretty good reverse back down to me,” Bajkov said. “I had lots of speed coming into the zone, found some room and I was able to get a quick shot off that found its way to the back of the net.”
Noah Juulsen set up the game-winner when he drove coast-to-coast toward the mouth of the Portland goal, not unlike his overtime game-winner at Kamloops earlier this year. Unlike that game, however – when he took goalie Connor Ingram across the crease and stuck the puck through the five-hole – on Tuesday Juulsen found Carson Stadnyk at the right post and Stadnyk didn’t miss on the one-timer.
The Tips will have to beat Seattle Friday and then hope for some help the rest of the way if they’re going to repeat as division champs, so everything is a must-win at this point. A victory Friday at ShoWareCenter would draw the teams even in points, but the Thunderbirds hold the tiebreaker with more wins.
The Turning Point
I will go with Carter Hart’s pad save in the final 20 seconds(ish) as the Winterhawks used six skaters in an attempt to tie the game.
Three Stars
1. Everett F Carson Stadnyk: The Everett overager converted a beautiful feed from Noah Juulsen for the game-winner.
2. Everett D Noah Juulsen: The Tips’ top blueliner assisted the game-winner and was plus-two on the evening
3. Portland G Adin Hill: The netminder finished with 22 saves and turned away numerous other chances for the Tips.
HM: Portland F Rihards Bukarts (scored Portland’s first goal and has been a general thorn in Everett’s side), Everett F Dawson Leedahl (plus-two in his return to the lineup).
