Tips stave off T-birds 5-3 in penultimate exhibition game

Published 1:30 am Friday, September 15, 2017

EVERETT — As far as dress rehearsals go, the Everett Silvertips will take it.

The Tips nearly saw a three-goal advantage evaporate, but managed to stave off the Seattle Thunderbirds 5-3 in their penultimate preseason game before several hundred fans at Xfinity Arena.

Orrin Centazzo’s empty-netter with 22 seconds to play ensured Everett (4-2 preseason) wouldn’t suffer a repeat of Sunday’s 5-4 loss when it blew a two-goal lead to the Vancouver Giants.

“We’ve still got to learn to finish out games,” head coach Dennis Williams said. “In all three games when we’ve had leads going into the third we’ve sat back. And we need to switch our minds to still be in attack mode and play what’s been successful.”

The Tips led 3-0 through two periods, but Seattle’s Donovan Neuls opened the scoring 31 seconds into the third when he converted on the power play. Everett countered at 2:07 when Dawson Butt skated in from the left and knocked the puck past Matt Berlin while falling to the ice for a 4-1 advantage.

But Neuls struck again when Austin Strand found him alone at the net front and Neuls waited out Dorrin Luding before roofing a wrister past the Everett goalie. Tyler Adams drew the T-birds within a goal at 4-3 at 5:58 when he went top shelf past Luding.

That was as close as the T-birds got as Centazzo sealed it.

“We had to do a little better job in the third of managing pucks,” Williams said. “I thought we had some blue line careless turnovers that if we just play them smarter and make them come the full 200 feet we would have done a much better job.”

Everett led 1-0 through the first period and began the second period on a power play. Brandson Hein fed Sean Richards in the slot on the rush and Richards tapped the puck past Berlin for a 2-0 lead at 1:12.

The Tips pushed their advantage to 3-0 at 6:58 in the second period when Connor Dewar took advantage of a Seattle turnover and poked by Berlin in a net-front scrum. That’s how it stayed until the third.

The Silvertips took their first lead at 13:53. Reece Vitelli spun around in the slot and beat Berlin blocker side for a 1-0 advantage.

The teams conclude their preseason slate at 7:05 p.m. Saturday in a matchup at ShoWare Center in Kent.

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Silvertips 5, Thunderbirds 3

Seattle 0 0 3 – 3

Everett 1 2 2 – 5

1st Period-1, Everett, Vitelli 1 (Kindopp), 13:53. Penalties-Wedman Sea (interference), 0:14; McNelly Sea (roughing), 15:54; Volcan Sea (roughing), 19:45.

2nd Period-2, Everett, Richards 1 (Hein, Wylie), 1:12 (PP). 3, Everett, Dewar 5 (Onyebuchi, Fairbrother), 6:58. Penalties-Bargar Sea (roughing), 10:53; Dewar Evt (roughing), 10:53; McNelly Sea (charging), 17:26; Azhgirei Evt (roughing), 17:26; Onyebuchi Evt (roughing), 19:27.

3rd Period-4, Seattle, Neuls 2 (Volcan, Tyszka), 0:31 (PP). 5, Everett, Butt 2 (Richards), 2:05. 6, Seattle, Neuls 3 (Strand, Hyman), 2:58. 7, Seattle, Adams 1 (Volcan, Neuls), 5:58. 8, Everett, Centazzo 4 19:38 (EN). Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Seattle 6-14-8-28. Everett 10-8-11-29.

Power Play Opportunities-Seattle 1 / 1; Everett 1 / 3.

Goalies-Seattle, Berlin 1-2-0-0 (28 shots-24 saves). Everett, Luding 2-1-0-0 (28 shots-25 saves).