Silvertips’ Harrison, Hayer suspended
Published 4:40 pm Tuesday, March 27, 2012
EVERETT — A challenging road just became that much more challenging for the Everett Silvertips.
Everett had two players suspended Monday in the aftermath of Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the Tri-City Americans in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Winger Ryan Harrison, who arguably has been the team’s top forward since the beginning of the new year, was handed a one-game suspension by the Western Hockey League for his major penalty for interference from Saturday. Center Manraj Hayer was suspended for a length to be determined for his double-minor for checking from behind, a hit that left Tri-City defenseman Drydn Dow injured.
“Disappointed,” was how Everett coach Mark Ferner described his reaction to the suspensions.
“Manny’s hit was an unfortunate situation where the ref came over and said it’s a penalty — and we’re not going to argue that — but also saying the player turned into it,” Ferner added. “Unfortunately, I think the boy got hurt and that’s a terrible thing, and that’s why it’s to be determined. (Harrison’s) hit, no question it was a penalty. The league felt it deserved a one-game suspension.”
Everett winger Cody Fowlie, who also faced a possible suspension for his checking-from-behind major Saturday, escaped further punishment for the hit.
Both Harrison and Hayer will sit out tonight’s Game 3 at Comcast Arena.
“You could say some were deserved, and that some were a little soft,” said Tips center Kohl Bauml, who faced the possibility of losing both his wingers as he skates on a line with Harrison and Fowlie. “But the league handed down the suspensions and we can’t do anything about it right now.”
Though Fowlie was not suspended for his major penalty, his actions did lead to sanctions. After being ejected Saturday, Fowlie made a comment on Twitter, since removed, that was highly critical of the officiating. Everett spent 19 minutes, 6 seconds killing penalties Saturday versus 6:10 for Tri-City, and that included a 11:56-0 margin in the first period. Fowlie was not reprimanded personally, but the team was fined $500 for violating the league’s social media and networking policy.
Everett, as the No. 8 seed, was already a heavy underdog against the top-seeded Americans. The Tips fell behind 2-0 in the best-of-seven series. Now the Tips must try to rally while missing key players.
“It’s adversity, I guess you’d say,” Ferner said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and I thought our kids played really hard in Tri-City the second game. When you have to kill 18 minutes of penalties before getting an opportunity on the power play, I thought our guys did a real good job being down just 2-0. There’s things we can’t control, and we will try to control the things we can.
“We told our kids we’re going to need everybody,” Ferner added about playing tonight’s game short-handed. “We still have a group here we’re confident in. We feel we play better at home. Tri-City did exactly what everybody thought they’d do, win the first two at home. Now we just have to look after our own back yard.”
Everett could also be without defenseman Nick Walters. Walters returned from a lower-body injury in time for Game 1. However, he did not play in Game 2 and is questionable for tonight’s Game 3.
But Bauml said he believes the Tips will adapt to any missing pieces.
“I don’t think we need to make that many adjustments,” Bauml said. “We just need guys to step in and do the same role. We all know what we’re supposed to do out there, we’re supposed to play physical and get in their face, and everyone was doing it by the end of Game 2. That’s basically who we have in our lineup for Game 3, so I think everyone’s going to be comfortable with what’s going on out there, and not a lot of adjustments need to be made.
“We’re going to need guys to step up, play bigger roles, and it will show a lot of character if we can pull off a win here at home.”
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
