A few penalty kill numbers
Published 2:45 pm Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Everett had its streak of 29 straight successful penalty kills come to an end with 6.6 seconds remaining in Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Edmonton. The goal didn’t really mean anything, but it did end Everett’s best stretch of penalty killing of the season.
That streak represented a substantial change in Everett’s fortunes on the penalty kill. The Tips struggled for much of the season on the kill, spending most of the season languishing toward the bottom of the WHL’s penalty-killing rankings. When I wrote a story about Everett’s struggling special teams back in November, the Tips were 20th out of 22 teams in the league on the kill at 74.3 percent.
Everett’s penalty kill stabilized in January, and it took off during the past six games, when the Tips earned 11 of a possible 12 points. During the streak Everett’s penalty-killing percentage went from 77.4 to 79.9 — it was actually above 80 percent before that late Edmonton goal — and now the Tips rank 13th in the league. That’s quite a reversal of fortunes, and it’s part of the reason for Everett’s recent results.
