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Three takeaways from the Silvertips road win at Portland

Published 3:30 pm Monday, October 15, 2018

By Josh Horton Herald Writer

Three takeaways from the Silvertips road win at Portland

In its third game in three nights, the Everett Silvertips dispatched a dangerous Portland team, 4-2, at the Moda Center on Sunday, completing the impressive three-in-three sweep.

After adding six points with wins over Edmonton, Kamloops and Portland , the Silvertips (6-3-0-0) are a top the U.S. Division with 12 points and boast the second best winning percentage at .666 — Seattle is first at 5-1-1-0 (.786).

Here are three takeaways from the Silvertips’ gritty win over the Winterhawks:

Penalty kill comes in clutch. Again: One of the bright spots for Everett this season played an integral part of Everett’s win over Portland.

The Silvertips killed all 10 of their penalties on Sunday. After that performance, Everett now boasts the second best penalty kill in the WHL by allowing only five power-play goals in 45 short-handed opportunities (88.9 percent) — Prince Albert leads the WHL with a 93.8 percent success rate on the penalty kill. Sunday was the fifth game Everett has not relented a power play goal this season.

There is a caveat to this: The Silvertips had to take 10 penalties in order to have this success killing penalties. But after playing their third game within a 48-hour span, the Silvertips being a little sloppy shouldn’t be shocking or appalling.

Wolf continues to prove he’s ready for workhorse role: Silvertips goaltender Dustin Wolf has started every game this season for Everett and he’s lived up to the hype, as well as the pressure of following three-time WHL goaltender of the year Carter Hart between the pipes.

Sunday was possibly his best performance yet.

Wolf stopped 30-of-32 shots and should be given plenty of credit for Everett’s squelching of the Winterhawks’ power play. He’s tied for second in games played at nine, behind Prince Albert’s Ian Scott (10), and second amongst goaltenders who have played in the majority of their team’s games in goals allowed average at 1.90.

Another solid showing from depth scoring: Everett’s stud forwards didn’t need to do the heavy lifting on Sunday.

With Wyatte Wylie potting his second goal in as many games, Akash Bains scoring his first goal of the season and Martin Fask0-Rudas lighting the lamp for the first time since the season-opener at Vancouver, the Silvertips’ secondary scoring had another strong showing. After the seven-and five-goal outbursts on Saturday and Sunday, it’s a strong indication the Silvertips are starting to find their stride offensively, with depth scoring chipping in plenty over the weekend.

Quick hits

— Rookie forward Gage Goncalves started on a line with Riley Sutter and Fasko-Rudas. The 17-year-old has strung together some pretty good shifts lately and appears like he was rewarded for it. Same goes for Jackson Berezowski, who was on the receiving end of some big hits on Saturday, who was on a line with Dewar and Kindopp.

— Luke Ormsby was scratched for the third straight game. The 19-year-old forward is dealing with a lower-body injury.

— Ryley Appelt was issued a tw0-game suspension for a hit on Berezowski in the second period of the Silvertips’ 7-2 win over the Blazers, the WHL’s discipline report.

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