Silvertips fall to T-birds 4-3, trail 2-0 in best-of-7 series

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 8, 2017

EVERETT — No team in the Western Hockey League matched the Everett Silvertips’ home winning percentage of .750 during the regular season, but that success hasn’t carried over to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.

Ethan Bear’s second-period slap shot on the power play stood up as the game-winning goal as the Seattle Thunderbirds defeated the Tips 4-3 before 5,129 fans at Xfinity Arena Saturday in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series.

Seattle now has a 2-0 lead with the series shifting to ShoWare Center in Kent for Games 3 and 4.

“This is a hard building to play in,” said Bear, who also added an assist. “We knew it was going to be tough and these games weren’t easy. We had to keep battling through and now we have to keep chipping away.”

It wasn’t the first time Bear has torched the Tips on the power play. He scored twice on the man advantage in the third period of Seattle’s 3-2 win over Everett in Kent on Jan. 28 and added a power-play, game-winner in another 3-2 T-birds win on March 10 at ShoWare Center.

What’s remarkable is that the Tips led the league in penalty killing during the regular season at 85.8 percent. But through eight playoff games Everett is killing penalties at a clip of just 69.6 percent.

Seattle has also killed off all five Everett power plays through the first two games. That continues to be an issue for a Tips team that relied heavily on the man advantage during the regular season and in the first-round series victory over Victoria.

“They’ve got a great penalty kill,” Everett captain Noah Juulsen said. “It’s a hard-pushing group so as a group we need to take a look at the video and just sort that out.”

The Tips got off to a much better start than they did in Friday’s 3-2 series-opening loss and took their first lead of the series into the second period.

The game turned in a matter of minutes in the second period.

Trailing 2-1, Seattle collected an Everett outlet pass at its own blue line, leading to a rush the other way. Luke Ormsby found Zack Andrusiak at 11:12 and Andrusiak’s wrister beat Carter Hart to knot the game 2-2.

Then on the next shift, Sami Moilanen snuck behind the Tips defense following a turnover in the Everett zone and got a feed from Nolan Volcan before beating Hart blocker-side for a 3-2 lead at 11:30.

“We did some better things tonight than (Friday) night,” Everett head coach Kevin Constantine said. “We had a tough stretch there obviously in the second. But there were some things we liked about our game tonight, too. They’re good. We gave them a little two-minute burst there, they got a couple of goals and that was the difference, but we did a lot of good things.”

The go-ahead goal was compounded for the Tips when Jake Christiansen took a penalty at the 15:00 mark and Bear capitalized with a one-timer from the left circle at 16:34 to push Seattle’s lead to 4-2.

Eetu Tuulola cut the deficit to a single goal at 12:33 in the third when Carl Stankowski couldn’t corral Brandson Hein’s wrister from the left circle. The puck trickled to Tuulola and the big Finn converted with the backhand.

“The goal was big to give a chance down the stretch,” Constantine said. “Sometimes you stand and watch a little, sometimes the magnitude of what you’re doing freezes you up a little and you gotta play the game. When we play we’re OK.”

The Tips pulled Hart with two minutes to play, but were unable to secure the tying goal.

For the second straight game the T-birds opened the scoring when a pass attempt bounced off an Everett player’s skate and was collected by Seattle’s Scott Eansor, who fired a wrister to beat Hart for a 1-0 lead at 7:05.

The Tips tallied the equalizer on the very next shift. Riley Sutter’s shot from the left circle bounced off Stankowski to Bryce Kindopp in the slot, and Kindopp back-handed the puck past Stankowski to make it 1-1 at 7:56.

Then the Tips took their first lead of the series at 12:52 when Connor Dewar dug the puck out from the end boards and brought it to the net front before he back-handed it past Stankowski for a 2-1 lead.

“I think tonight we played a better game, but in the end we didn’t get the result we wanted,” Juulsen said. “As a group we gotta re-group here the next couple days and get back to work.”

Game 3 is scheduled for Tuesday at ShoWare Center in Kent. The puck drops at 7:05 p.m.

Thunderbirds 4, Silvertips 3

Seattle 1 3 0 — 4

Everett 2 0 1 — 3

1st Period—1, Seattle, Eansor 3 7:05. 2, Everett, Kindopp 1 (Sutter, Irving), 7:56. 3, Everett, Dewar 1 12:52. Penalties—Adams Sea (checking to the head), 1:52; Skrumeda Evt (high sticking), 19:56.

2nd Period—4, Seattle, Andrusiak 1 (Ormsby, Bear), 11:12. 5, Seattle, Moilanen 2 (Volcan), 11:30. 6, Seattle, Bear 3 (Neuls, Barzal), 16:34 (PP). Penalties—Zwerger Evt (interference), 3:43; Strand Sea (holding), 5:55; Christiansen Evt (slashing), 15:00.

3rd Period—7, Everett, Tuulola 4 (Hein), 12:33. Penalties—Moilanen Sea (high sticking), 8:11.

Shots on Goal—Seattle 9-5-1-15. Everett 11-5-7-23.

Power Play Opportunities—Seattle 1 / 3; Everett 0 / 3.

Goalies—Seattle, Stankowski (23 shots-20 saves). Everett, Hart (15 shots-11 saves).

A—5,129

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