Three takeaways: Dewar transforming into faceoff weapon

Published 11:55 pm Friday, March 1, 2019

EVERETT—The Silvertips potted two goals over their last eight shots after Beck Warm stopped the first 56 en route to a 2-1 win over the Americans, spoiling the Tri-City netminder’s unbelievable performance between the pipes. Read more at the link.

Here at the three takeaways:

Dewar stellar in circle

The Silvertips tilted the ice for the majority of the game. Connor Dewar deserves a lot of credit for that.

The captain won 21-of-35 faceoffs for the Silvertips, who won 56.7 percent overall.

“I thought he played unbelievable tonight,” Williams said. “Not only faceoffs, but (being) first on pucks, his tenacity. He was all over the ice.”

Dewar has been tremendous in the faceoff circle lately. In his last 10 games dating back to Jan. 20, Dewar is running a 55.8 percent success rate on draws.

That’s not bad for a natural left wing, forced to the middle due to Riley Sutter’s lower-body injury (the 19-year-old center has been out since Dec. 29).

Dewar saw plenty of ice time on Friday despite missing the last four games with an upper-body. Typically players are out for less in their first game back from an injury due to coniditioning concerns, but not Dewar.

So much so that he rarely saw the bench over the last five minutes of the game and won a key puck battle with Tri-City defenseman Aaron Hyman in the corner, flung it over the Artyom Minulin, whose shot from the point created the rebound opportunity for Bryce Kindopp’s game-winning goal.

Williams compared him to a racehorse. Open the gates (the puck drop) and Dewar’s off and running.

“We asked him a couple times if he could go and he’s never going to tell you he can’t, so you have to trust him,” Williams said. “I thought his energy level was next to none. That was why he was winning a lot of those draws, he was just tenacious in the circle.”

A suffocating forecheck

Another contributing factor for the Silvertips’ zone dominance was Everett’s forecheck, which forced ample turnovers and limited Tri-City’s ability to rush the puck up the ice.

“Yeah, we were skating,” Williams said. “Fresh bodies do that every once in a while. It was a really nice performance from our boys.”

The Silvertips capped a seven-games-in-10 days stretch in last Saturday’s 6-3 win over Prince George. Five subsequent days off from game action allowed Everett to implement a unabating and effective forecheck and Tri-City struggled to make the required passes to break it.

Patterson’s unsung play

He didn’t pick up a point for it, but Max Patterson was crucial to Everett’s game-winning goal. Not only did Patterson win the faceoff against Nolan Yaremko to secure possession for Everett, he set a heavy screen on Tri-City defenseman Don Schmiemann to help generate the rebound, allowing Kindopp to capitalize on the blocker rebound.

He won’t recieve a point, but Patterson deserves one for a solid effort on Kindopp’s goal.

Horton’s three stars

1. Beck Warm: He picked up the loss, but Warm was sensational between the pipes with a career-high 60 ssaved. He stopped the first 56 shots he faced to keep the Americans in the game late.

2. Connor Dewar: Picked up an assist, was solid in the faceoff circle and was all over the ice in his first game back.

3. Bryce Kindopp: The game-winning goal was his 37th of the year and also notched a secondary assist.

Josh Horton covers the Everett Silvertips and AquaSox for The Everett Daily Herald. Follow him on Twitter (@joshhortonEDH) or reach out to him over email (jhorton@heraldnet.com).