Silvertips lose to Portland, fall into 2nd place in West

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 12, 2019

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Everett Silvertips lost their grasp on the overall top seed in the Western Conference thanks to a 4-1 loss to the Portland Winterhawks on Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Everett had been tied with Vancouver at 96 points, but the Giants beat the Seattle Thunderbirds 5-1 on Tuesday to pull ahead.

After a scoreless first period, Reece Newkirk put the Winterhawks on the board first with a goal at 4:50 in the second.

Portland added to its lead in the third when Jake Gricius snuck a shot past Silvertips goalie Dustin Wolf to make the score 2-0.

Bryce Kindopp scored at 17:30 in the third period to pull Everett within a goal at 2-1, but the Silvertips weren’t able to find the back of the net again.

Jared Freadrich and Lane Gillis added empty-net goals to provide the final tally for Portland (40-20-3-3).

Wolf finished with 28 saves for Everett (46-16-2-2). Joel Hofer had 36 saves for the Winterhawks.