Silvertips lose to Americans, fail to clinch playoff series

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 28, 2018

EVERETT — Nearly 8,000 fans filled the seats at Angel of the Winds Arena Saturday night hoping to witness Everett Silvertips franchise history.

Instead, a potential second-ever WHL Western Conference title will have to wait as the Tri-City Americans staved off elimination with a 5-2 win before 7,812 fans in Game 5 of the conference finals.

“We need players to make plays — we need individuals to step up out there,” Everett head coach Dennis Williams said. “I thought we had too many guys who were just not fully bought in. It’s the compete (level) of every shift and we’ve got to be better.”

Juuso Valimaki scored twice for the Americans and Nolan Yaremko had a goal and an assist. Roman Kalinichenko and Riley Sawchuk each had two assists as the Americans cut their series deficit to 3-2.

Game 6 is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Monday at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.

“(Valimaki) has logged a lot of ice time and he scored the two goals, but he does a lot at both ends of the ice,” Tri-City head coach Mike Williamson said. “It is immeasurable what he does in the dressing room with his leadership and he has since he got here so it was nice to see him get rewarded tonight.”

Connor Dewar scored both of Everett’s goals. His second goal of the game cut Everett’s 4-1 third-period deficit to two at 17:11, but Michael Rasmussen’s empty-netter a minute later sealed the game for the Americans.

“We expected them to be desperate and they were more desperate than we were,” Dewar said. “I think we were out-matched by their desperation.”

The Americans took a 2-1 lead into the third and Valimaki’s second goal pushed the lead to 3-1 when he skated in and roofed a backhander over Carter Hart at 5:23. Parker AuCoin gave Tri-City its first three-goal lead of the series with a wrister from the right circle at 15:57.

Dewar scored with Everett’s net empty before Rasmussen essentially ended it.

“We knew they were going to come out hard and we didn’t answer the bell as well as we needed to,” Everett captain Matt Fonteyne said. “They’re a good team, they’re here for a reason and they have a lot of guys that can make you pay if you take a couple shifts off. I think that’s what happened tonight. They looked like they wanted it more than we did.”

Trailing 1-0 after the first period, the Americans drew even in the second period after Tri-City killed an Everett power play.

Valimaki skated in and fired a wrister from the left circle that trickled through Hart’s legs to make it 1-1 at 2:20 in the second.

Then Tri-City’s Jordan Topping won a puck battle behind the Everett net and fed Nolan Yaremko at the crease. Yaremko snuck the puck through Hart for a 2-1 lead at 12:42 in the second period.

In-between Tri-City’s goals the Tips rang two shots off the post in a span of six seconds.

“I liked a lot of our chances in the second,” Williams said. “We have to make some plays and score goals there. We had lots of opportunities, but again we have to be willing to stay in the paint. I thought sometimes we were just doing fly-bys in there and you gotta be patient, you gotta be ready to take cross-checks and slashes, and if you want to score goals this time of year that’s right where you have to fight and hang out there.”

The Tips took the lead before many fans had even found their seats. Everett won the opening faceoff, Ondrej Vala flung a shot toward the net, and Dewar buried the rebound from the slot just seven seconds in.

But that was it as the Americans clamped down defensively for the next 47-plus minutes.

“That line did a really good job starting the game and then I feel like we just tried to sit on it for the whole game,” Fonteyne said. “When that happens we need to regroup and start over and pretend it’s a 0-0 game again and just keep going. I think we just kind of sat back and ended up getting outshot in the period. I thought we sat back when we needed to keep on moving.”

Tri-City goaltender Patrick Dea saved 35 of Everett’s 37 shots to pick up the victory. Hart finished with 19 saves in a losing effort.

The Americans finished 0-for-4 on the power play and the Tips were scoreless on two power plays.

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Americans 5, Silvertips 2

Tri-City 0 2 3 — 5

Everett 1 0 1 — 2

1st Period—1, Everett, Dewar 7 (Vala, Sutter), 0:07. Penalties—Bajkov Evt (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 11:59; Fairbrother Evt (playing w/broken st.), 15:32; Sawchuk Tc (holding), 19:22.

2nd Period—2, Tri-City, Välimäki 3 (Kalinichenko, Geekie), 2:29. 3, Tri-City, Yaremko 7 (Topping), 12:42. Penalties—James Tc (checking to the head), 8:00; James Tc (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 15:36; Richards Evt (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 15:36; Sawchuk Tc (cross checking), 16:10; Dewar Evt (slashing), 16:10.

3rd Period—4, Tri-City, Välimäki 4 (Sawchuk, Kalinichenko), 5:23. 5, Tri-City, AuCoin 4 (Sawchuk), 15:57. 6, Everett, Dewar 8 (Christiansen, Pilon), 17:11. 7, Tri-City, Rasmussen 15 (Yaremko), 18:11 (EN). Penalties—Vala Evt (delay of game), 10:28; Vitelli Evt (tripping), 19:17.

Shots on Goal—Tri-City 10-7-7-24. Everett 7-19-11-37.

Power Play Opportunities—Tri-City 0 / 4; Everett 0 / 2.

Goalies—Tri-City, Dea (37 shots-35 saves). Everett, Hart (23 shots-19 saves).

A—7,812