Thunderbirds halt Silvertips’ seven-game win streak

Published 1:30 am Sunday, February 26, 2017

KENT — The Everett Silvertips utilized strong starts and low scores in building a seven-game winning streak entering Sunday’s Western Hockey League game against the Seattle Thunderbirds.

That streak came to an abrupt end as the T-Birds scored early and often in a 6-1 victory over the Tips before 5,157 fans at ShoWare Center.

“It wasn’t a great start and it showed on the scoreboard,” Everett captain Noah Juulsen said. “We just gotta play our game and I think tonight we got away from that.”

Mathew Barzal had a goal and three assists as the Tips tied their season-high in goals allowed.

The loss snapped Everett’s winning streak, but the Tips (38-12-8-2, 86 points) remain in first place in the WHL’s U.S. Division and the Western Conference. Seattle (40-18-3-2, 85 points) has won 14 in a row at home. The Thunderbirds have defeated the Tips five times in their past six meetings.

The Silvertips came into the game following back-to-back impressive opening periods that resulted in early leads and led to wins Friday and Saturday. That wasn’t the case Sunday as the opening minutes were littered with penalties.

Everett went up a man, then two, before the tables turned. It was Seattle that took advantage of its first 5-on-3 opportunity when Keegan Kolesar beat Carter Hart on a one-timer from the left circle off a feed from Barzal to give the Thunderbirds a 1-0 lead at 7:10 in the first period.

“Five-on-three, it would have been nice if we would have scored,” Everett head coach Kevin Constantine said. “Then it went three-on-five and they scored. It was unusual circumstances so it was an unusual start.”

Kolesar’s shot came from a tight angle and got past Hart’s blocker.

“If your three-on-five can give up shots from there, it’s not a penalty-killing issue,” Constantine said. “I don’t mind giving up a shot over there. If a guy can put it in from over there, you can’t defend that.”

Monroe native Luke Ormsby pushed it to 2-0 at 12:25 when he took Hart across the crease and flicked a wrister past the Everett goalie. It was Ormsby’s sixth goal of the season and his second against Everett.

The T-Birds then took a three-goal lead at 18:04 when Sami Moilanen dropped the puck for Anthony Bishop in the slot and Bishop fired over Hart’s left shoulder for his first career WHL goal.

It didn’t get much better in the second period, even after backup Mario Petit replaced Hart in the net. Barzal fed Gropp at the right circle for a 4-0 lead on the power play at 4:56 of the second.

“Calls are calls and we gotta kill those penalties going into the future here,” Juulsen said. “We want to try to keep them to the outside. I thought we did that and one squeaked in. Throughout the night our penalty kill has got to be better. That was just unacceptable tonight.”

The Tips countered with a short-handed goal as Connor Dewar picked Barzal’s pocket at the blue line and walked in on Rylan Toth for the goal at 10:39 in the second, but Barzal atoned less than two minutes later when he weaved through a number of Tips players and beat Petit over the shoulder to push the Seattle advantage to 5-1.

The final frame was largely uneventful until Elijah Brown scored at 15:13 for the game’s final goal.

Hart saved nine of 12 shot and Petit stopped 12 of 15. Toth saved 20 of 21.

It was the first time Hart had been pulled since Everett’s 6-5 loss to Portland on Feb. 3.

“Carter played (five of six) on the trip and he played three-in-three,” Constantine said. “If he’s hot and we can go with him and he’s fresh, then you’d play him a lot. But if he’s having a little bit of an off night, we gotta give him a break at some point. It had a lot to do with just giving him a break.”

The Silvertips return to Xfinity Arena on Wednesday when they play host to the Spokane Chiefs at 7:05 p.m.

For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter.

Thunderbirds 6, Silvertips 1

Everett 0 1 0—1

Seattle 3 2 1—6

1st Period—1, Seattle, Kolesar 22 (Barzal, Bear), 7:10 (PP). 2, Seattle, Ormsby 6 (Adams, Barzal), 12:35. 3, Seattle, Bishop 1 (Moilanen, Harsch), 18:04. Penalties-Strand Sea (cross checking), 3:50; Volcan Sea (interference), 4:55; Bajkov Evt (interference), 5:25; Dewar Evt (tripping), 6:28.

2nd Period—4, Seattle, Gropp 29 (Barzal, Bear), 4:56 (PP). 5, Everett, Dewar 11 10:39 (SH). 6, Seattle, Barzal 9 (Ottenbreit, Neuls), 12:14 (PP). Penalties-Anderson Evt (charging), 4:43; Irving Evt (slashing), 6:44; Tuulola Evt (boarding), 10:18; Ottenbreit Sea (cross checking), 19:59; Skrumeda Evt (10-minute misconduct), 20:00.

3rd Period—7, Seattle, Brown 3 (True), 15:13. Penalties-Andrusiak Sea (tripping), 11:52; Anderson Evt (10-minute misconduct), 18:58; Richards Evt (roughing), 18:58; Andrusiak Sea (roughing), 18:58.

Shots on Goal—Everett 4-9-8-21. Seattle 12-8-7-27.

Power Play Opportunities—Everett 0/4; Seattle 3/5.

Goalies—Everett, Hart 27-8-6-1 (12 shots-9 saves); Petit 10-5-2-1 (15 shots-12 saves). Seattle, Toth 33-17-1-1 (21 shots-20 saves).

A—5,157