Silvertips’ youth shows in preseason tourney finale

Published 1:30 am Sunday, September 4, 2016

EVERETT — The Portland Winterhawks scored four goals in the third period to erase a one-goal deficit Sunday as they closed out the 13th annual Holiday Inn Classic with a 4-1 victory over the Everett Silvertips at Xfinity Arena.

Ryan Hughes scored twice for Portland in the final period as a young Tips contingent fell to 1-2 in the preseason.

A quintet of first-year defensemen, along with second-year blueliner Jake Christiansen, skated for the Tips as the Winterhawks outshot Everett 39-24.

Veteran defenseman Kevin Davis also was active, but skated with the forwards as the Tips coaching staff wanted to evaluate its crop of young defensemen.

“So much starts with your (defense), getting out of your end and defending in your end and getting the puck up to the forwards,” Everett head coach Kevin Constantine said. “I think all those kids are going be pretty good defensemen, but it’s hard to have six of them out there at once. I think that was the root of the issue.”

Carter Brown, one of the aforementioned rookie blueliners, scored the game’s first goal at 6:53 of the second period.

“It’s a special feeling and it was good to get the first one out of the way,” said Brown, a former Saskatoon Blades bantam selection who signed with the Tips last week. “I thought it was going to miss the net.”

Brown’s goal came on a slapshot from the high slot off an assist from import rookie Mario Mucka.

“We encourage our (defensemen) to be pretty active and he saw a chance to jump in the offense,” Constantine said.

Despite holding a 23-14 shot advantage, Portland found itself trailing 1-0 through two periods. The Winterhawks took the lead with two goals in a 20-second span early in the third period. Hughes one-timed a pass from Iljah Colina at 5:44 to tie the game at 1-1. Then Colton Veloso curled in behind the net and tucked the puck underneath Everett goaltender Lasse Petersen’s right blocker to make it 2-1 at 6:06.

Everett’s Connor Dewar had a chance to tie the game when he worked his way into the slot, but Portland netminder Cole Kehler saved the attempt.

Caleb Jones then put the game all but out of reach with a wrister from the left circle at 13:25 and Hughes scored from the right circle at 19:15 for the game’s final tally.

The four goals allowed by Petersen belied a solid performance by the newly acquired netminder. Petersen finished with 35 saves on 39 shots in his first start of the preseason.

“I thought he was really good, to be honest with you,” Constantine said. “He might have wanted the third one back, but for a lot of the game we were in the game and a lot of that had to do with him.”

Ethan Browne, Everett’s first-round pick in May’s bantam draft, centered the first line Sunday as he made his final appearance at camp before he heads back to Sherwood Park, Alberta, for his 15-year-old campaign.

Everett finished 0-for-4 on the power play. Portland was 0-for-6 on the man advantage. Veloso had a goal and assist for the Winterhawks.

The Tips’ next preseason games are Wednesday and Thursday at Tri-City against Spokane and Portland at the Toyota Center. Both games begin at 3 p.m.

For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter @jessegeleynse.

Portland 0 0 4 0—4

Everett 0 1 0 0—1

1st Period—No Scoring.Penalties-Caller Por (hooking), 6:44; Ginnell Por (holding opp. stick), 10:18; Brown Evt (roughing), 10:18; De Jong Por (interference), 15:07; Brown Evt (elbowing), 19:25.

2nd Period—1, Everett, Brown 1 (Mucka), 6:53. Penalties-Hein Evt (tripping), 4:24; Walker Evt (closing hand on puck), 12:04; Weinger Por (slashing), 19:23; Ralph Evt (roughing), 19:57.

3rd Period—2, Portland, Hughes 2 (Colina, Weinger), 5:44. 3, Portland, Veloso 1 6:06. 4, Portland, Jones 1 (Gilliss, De Jong), 13:25. 5, Portland, Hughes 3 (Veloso), 19:15. Penalties-Centazzo Evt (hooking), 3:01; Centazzo Evt (tripping), 14:12; MacEachern Por (slashing), 20:00.

OT Period—No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal—Portland 10-13-16-0-39. Everett 8-6-10-0-24.

Power Play Opportunities—Portland 0/6; Everett 0/4.

Goalies—Portland, Bullion 1-0-0-0 (10 shots-9 saves); Kehler 2-0-0-0 (14 shots-14 saves). Everett, Petersen 0-1-0-0 (39 shots-35 saves).