Goalies Hart, Wolf have been stellar for Silvertips

Published 1:30 am Thursday, November 23, 2017

EVERETT — Maybe there is something special about Wednesday nights.

Everett Silvertips goaltender Carter Hart broke Leland Irving’s club record with his 22nd career shutout Wednesday as the Tips defeated the Tri-City Americans 3-0 at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.

The record-breaker came a week after Hart tied Irving’s record in a 2-0 win over Prince Albert at Xfinity Arena. It helped Hart earn his 10th career WHL Goaltender of the Week nod and his first such nod in what has been an abbreviated 2017-18 campaign as he missed a month due to mononucleosis.

Not that there are any lingering effects from the illness. Hart now leads the WHL in save percentage (.952), goals-against average (1.65) and is tied for the lead in shutouts with three. More importantly, the Tips are 5-2-0-1 in the eight games Hart has played since returning from illness.

But it isn’t just Hart who has been spectacular between the pipes. Rookie Dustin Wolf’s numbers are actually better than Hart’s — although Wolf has appeared in just three games since returning from offseason hip surgery.

Wolf won his first two WHL starts en route to Goaltender of the Week honors and suffered his first loss in a 2-0 defeat Saturday to the Seattle Thunderbirds at ShoWare Center. Nevertheless, Wolf maintains a .965 save percentage and a 1.34 GAA. He hasn’t played enough minutes to register among the league leaders.

Since Wolf debuted with a 3-1 win at Kamloops on Oct. 27, the Tips are 7-3-0-1, and opponents have scored two or fewer goals in nine of those 11 contests.

But even with spectacular goaltending the Tips still need to produce on the offensive end. They snapped a miserable stretch of power-play futility Sunday in a 2-1 home loss to Regina and added another power-play goal Wednesday. Everett also killed both penalties Wednesday and are now 31-for-32 on the penalty kill going back to Wolf’s debut.

The Tips (11-12-1-1, 24 points) play host to Spokane for the first time this season at 7:35 p.m. Friday. The Chiefs (12-8-1-2, 27 points) are a different team than the one that defeated Everett 5-4 at Spokane Arena on Oct. 4. Since then they’ve acquired overage forward Zach Fischer from Medicine Hat and had Spokane native Kailer Yamamoto returned from the Edmonton Oilers.

Fischer has eight goals and six assists in 14 games with Spokane after averaging better than point per game last season with the Tigers. Yamamoto has a goal and five assists in five games after tallying three assists in nine games with the Oilers.

Hudson Elynuk leads the Chiefs with 12 goals and 20 assists while Riley Woods (nine goals, 12 assists), Jaret Anderson Dolan (eight goals, 13 assists) and potential 2018 first-round NHL pick Ty Smith (three goals, 18 assists) all have 21 points.

Goaltender Dawson Weatherill has been less-than-stellar despite his 10-6-1-2 record. He has an .895 save percentage and a 3.13 GAA.

The Tips conclude their weekend by playing host to the Vancouver Giants at 7:05 p.m. Saturday.