Silvertips clinch second-straight Scotty Munro Trophy

Published 1:05 am Sunday, March 15, 2026

EVERETT — Charging up the ice at Angel of the Winds Arena on Saturday, Julius Miettinen noticed the two closest Penticton Vees defenders were flat-footed as he entered the offensive zone. Approaching the final two minutes of overtime in a 3-3 deadlock, the Everett Silvertips forward decided to go for the net.

From the left side, Miettinen went forehand-to-backhand between Vees forward Jacob Kvasnicka’s legs and into the slot. He whiffed on the shot attempt, but managed to recover it with Penticton goalie Andrew Reyelts sprawled out after he anticipated the initial release.

“The goalie was swimming on his stomach,” Miettinen said. “And I just took it past him.”

Without slowing down, the Seattle Kraken prospect put the puck on his forehand and shot it past Reyelts’ right leg while nearly parallel with the goal line, tucking it in off the far post to seal a 4-3 overtime win for the Silvertips.

With the win, Everett (54-7-2-1, 111 points) clinched the Western Hockey League regular-season championship, winning the Scotty Munro Trophy for the second season in a row and the third time in franchise history. Even with the accomplishment, the team remains focused on capturing its first WHL Championship when the playoffs start on March 27.

“It signifies, obviously, we’ve had a good run here in the regular season,” Silvertips coach Steve Hamilton said. “It’s not the trophy we’re here to play for. It’s not what our team’s focused on, but if it’s part of it, then certainly congratulations to the guys. Other than that, I think it’s onto tomorrow. And that’s really been our focus all year long, to just be in the moment and then move on past those moments and get ready for the next one.”

The overtime win on Saturday marked Everett’s ninth in a row and its 22nd in the past 23 games. While plenty came in the form of convincing, multi-goal victories, the Silvertips have also displayed their ability to win tight games like the one on Saturday — in which Penticton tied the game three times before Miettinen’s OT winner — and even comeback victories.

The WHL Playoffs are a different beast, which last year’s Silvertips could tell you firsthand after losing in the second round, but this year’s team has proven it can get results in both dominant and narrow fashions.

“I think it comes from a couple different things,” said captain Tarin Smith, who scored two goals in the win on Saturday. “We have a pretty mature group in that locker room, and then also heading into games, like we’re a confident group. I feel like lots of times, no matter what the scoreboard says or stuff like that, we know that no matter what, we have it in us.

“I know there’s been quite a few games where we’ve came back late in the game, late in the third period, down a couple goals, and I think that’s just a credit to our team. How we know we can do it no matter what, and we can never take our foot off the gas.”

Before Miettinen won the game with a fantastic solo effort, Everett relied on goaltender Anders Miller to backstop a 4-on-3 penalty kill to open overtime. Silvertips defenseman Landon DuPont committed a tripping penalty following a defensive zone turnover with just five seconds left in regulation, which set Penticton up with a man-advantage for the first 1:55 of overtime.

The Vees peppered Miller with five shots on goal in that span, and while the Everett penalty killers also stepped up to make blocks and clears when needed, it was Miller (40 saves) that stepped up to keep the game alive.

“(Miller) was insane today,” Miettinen said. “The saves he made on the OT, the (penalty kill), that was huge. I mean, I think he was the best player on the ice today. He kept us in the game, and that’s why we won.”

The kill felt even bigger than it already was because Penticton scored a pair of power-play goals in the second period to tie the score 1-1 and 2-2, respectively. The Silvertips, meanwhile, went 0-for-3 in the first period alone. It was a rare lapse in both categories — Everett ranks fourth in the WHL on both the power play (30.4%) and penalty kill (80.5%) — but it was a big factor against a similarly effective Vees squad, which ranks just above the Silvertips on the penalty kill (81.3%) and two spots below on the power play (27.3%).

“We didn’t get a lot of power-play time after the first (period),” Hamilton said. “We didn’t seem quite right there. (Penticton is) a really good penalty-killing team. I thought we killed pretty well, and they hit us on a couple. It’s going to happen when you go against talented teams. It doesn’t take a lot to create that extra stick around the net, and that’s basically what it was. But to our guys’ credit, we dug in and got the most important kill of the night.”

Just as it relied on him in overtime, Everett leaned on Miller to keep the Vees off the board through the first period. The 19-year-old made a pad stop 45 seconds in, then provided a point-blank save on a 2-on-1 right after Everett’s first power play expired around the 8:00 mark. Penticton started to gain momentum midway through the first period, including a one-timer from Callum Stone that Miller managed to freeze at 11:58.

The Silvertips could not find the back of the net through 20 minutes, but Zackary Shantz opened the scoring at 3:07 of the second, taking a pass from Rylan Gould inside and displaying patience before dangling around Reyelts in the crease.

Vees forward Ryden Evers tied it with a rebound on the power play at 8:53, but Smith restored the lead at 12:29 with a one-timer behind the left circle off a pass from Nolan Chastko. Penticton tied it 2-2 on the power play at 15:00 with a tip-in from Matteo Danis, but Smith struck again in a similar fashion to his first goal with just 10.7 seconds left in the period to give Everett a 3-2 lead.

This time taking a pass across the point from DuPont, Smith once again positioned himself behind the left circle and fired a shot through traffic, which slipped past Reyelts. Hamilton said he had talked with Smith about shooting more to the inside, and praised him for keeping his head up and recognizing those opportunities to create offense.

“We were fast,” Smith said about the minutes leading up to his goal before the break. “That’s one thing that we really pride ourselves on, and the coaches are really nailing that into our heads, is that we need to play fast. I know that when you’re playing against a team who also plays fast, you can’t really get structure, and they’re just coming down on you all the time, and it’s hard to play against. So that’s kind of what we try to do, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Evers managed to tie things up yet again with his second goal of the game at 8:23 of the third period. The 20-year-old forward — who signed an entry-level contract with the Kraken on March 1 after going undrafted in the NHL — slipped behind a pair of Everett defenders and got around Miller off a pass from Kvasnicka to make it 3-3.

The Silvertips sustained a heavy forecheck to create chances down the stretch, but it took a big kill in overtime and Miettinen deciding to ‘call game’ for Everett to get the win and the Scotty Munro Trophy.

“It’s been an insane year for the boys, and we’ve been great the whole year, just how tight we are as a group,” Miettinen said. “It’s just an award on the way. We keep going in the playoffs.”