Silvertips defeat Saskatoon in shootout after Zwerger ties it

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 15, 2017

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan — The Everett Silvertips entered Wednesday’s game having never lost at Saskatoon in regulation.

The Tips still haven’t as they escaped the SaskTel Centre with a 2-1 shootout victory Wednesday over the Blades before 2,935 fans.

Riley Sutter scored the game-winner in the fourth round of the shootout as the Tips defeated the Blades for the fifth consecutive time overall. Orrin Centazzo also found the net for Everett in the shootout, as did Saskatoon’s Jesse Shynkurak.

It was just Everett’s second shootout victory of the season.

With the win the Silvertips (34-12-8-2, 78 points) reassumed first place in the U.S. Division by one point over the idle Seattle Thunderbirds. Everett has now won three straight on its six-game East Division road trip and four of five overall.

Saskatoon (23-26-5-2, 53 points) saw its three-game winning streak snapped as the Blades maintain their hold on the Eastern Conference’s final wild card position.

Everett found itself trailing 1-0 after the opening period and was out-shot 10-9 in the opening stanza.

“I think a bit of a sluggish start by our guys, but I think that’s gonna happen after an emotional win like (Tuesday) night in Regina,” Everett assistant Mitch Love said in a postgame interview on 1380 KRKO. “Even though you stress it as much as you can in team meetings and throughout the day before the game, but at the same time you’ve got to give credit to Saskatoon. They’re fighting for their playoff lives and they have played some real good hockey of late. It’s a combination of both and it was just nice that we could go down in a game and still scrap and get ourselves back and get the two points.”

Dominic Zwerger tied the contest on the rush when he deked Saskatoon goaltender Brock Hamm and stashed the puck past Hamm’s blocker to make it 1-1 at 14:04 in the second. Noah Juulsen earned an assist on the play and now has a point in all four games since returning from a lower body injury.

“Even though they scored first I thought we kind of got our game going after that. It was kind of a wakeup call for us,” Love said. “(In the second) we had a lot of offensive zone time. We had some opportunities and I thought their goaltender had good eyes on the puck. We didn’t get enough traffic in front of him. And then the third period I thought we were excellent. Our energy was excellent, we rolled four lines and six ‘D’ and got our forecheck going and were physical. I thought Saskatoon’s ‘D’ was turning pucks over, which was giving us opportunities.”

The third period and overtime were both scoreless.

Kirby Dach tipped in Bryton Sayers’ point shot at 10:50 to give the Blades a 1-0 lead at 10:50 in the first period. It was the third goal of the brief career of Dach, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 bantam draft who will be with Saskatoon for the remainder of the season due to exemptions from the WHL, Hockey Alberta and his midget team.

Hart saved 30 of 31 shots while Hamm saved 28 of 29. Everett was 0-for-3 on the power play and Saskatoon was 0-for-1.

The Silvertips continue their road trip at Prince Albert on Friday beginning at 5 p.m.

Silvertips 2, Blades 1 (OT)

Everett0100—2

Saskatoon1000—1

1st Period—1, Saskatoon, Dach 3 (Sayers, Atwal), 10:50.

2nd Period—2, Everett, Zwerger 23 (Juulsen, Skrumeda), 14:04. Penalties—Hájek Sas (inter. on goaltender), 5:33; Juulsen Evt (interference), 7:38; McCarty Sas (boarding), 17:26.

3rd Period—No Scoring. Penalties—Hájek Sas (holding), 1:56.

OT Period—No Scoring.

Shootout—Everett 2 (Kindopp NG, Centazzo G, Zwerger NG, Sutter G), Saskatoon 1 (Shynkaruk G, Farren NG, McCarty NG, Paterson NG).

Shots on Goal—Everett 9-12-6-2-1-30. Saskatoon 10-9-8-4-0-31.

Power Play Opportunities—Everett 0/3; Saskatoon 0/1.

Goalies—Everett, Hart 23-7-6-1 (31 shots-30 saves). Saskatoon, Hamm 6-10-3-2 (29 shots-28 saves).

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