EVERETT — Wednesday night was supposed to witness something of a coronation at the Everett Events Center, with a crowning, of sorts, at mid-ice after the game had ended.
Instead, everything that could go wrong did for the Everett Silvertips, and the coronation was called off.
The Seattle Thunderbirds scored on four of their first seven shots, and the Silvertips saw their four-game winning streak come to an end with a 5-1 loss in a Western Hockey League game before a crowd of 6,023.
Everett coach Kevin Constantine made a deal with the team at the beginning of the season that he would shave his head if Everett ever won five straight. Had Everett pulled the feat off Wednesday, Constantine was going to have his hair sheered at center ice after the game. But Constantine’s red locks were never in danger.
"The only silver lining is that my head shaved would be one ugly head," Constantine quipped. "We saved the city of Everett from ugliness."
There was plenty of other ugliness as far as the Silvertips (23-18-7-1) were concerned. One could make a catalog out of Everett’s mishaps Wednesday:
Even when it appeared Everett had finally done something right, Jeff Schmidt putting a rebound into the net late in the second period, the goal was waved off because a whistle had sounded. Everett finally got on the board with 14:55 remaining in the game on Shaun Heshka’s second goal of the season, but by then it was too late.
"It was kind of opposite of what happened last weekend," Constantine said. "Last weekend (in two games against Prince George) we were outplayed and managed to win. Tonight I’m not going to say we outplayed Seattle, but three of their first six shots went in. Last weekend our goalies were seeing 30 shots and nothing was getting by our goalies, today everything was getting by. I guess the hockey gods were evening things out."
Bryan Bridges was strong in net for Seattle, making 37 saves as the T-birds (15-24-8-3) snapped their three-game losing streak.
"We played with more energy from the start," Seattle coach Dean Chynoweth said. "They got banged up and we got some breaks on our goals. But we’ve had that happen to us, so it was nice to be on the other side of that."
Seattle managed just one shot on goal in the first 10 minutes of the game, but that shot found the target as Chris Durand picked out the left corner with his wrist shot from the right slot, giving the T-birds a 1-0 lead just 1:17 into the game.
Yashar Farmanara doubled Seattle’s lead at 18:05 of the first period, then Nate Thompson and Justin Maiser both scored in the opening 2:42 of the second period to make it 4-0. Heshka scored on a wrister from the point at 5:05 of the third, but Cole Simpson scored an insurance goal for Seattle at 13:38.
Slap shots: Horman’s and Dahl’s injuries are not considered serious. However, Thoring took a hit to his knee and is feared to have suffered an injury similar to Chad Bassen’s medial collateral ligament injury. The extent of the injury will be determined later this week. … Zach Hamill was a late addition to Everett’s lineup Wednesday and he scored his first ever WHL point, assisting on Heshka’s goal. Hamill, Everett’s first-round pick in the 2003 Bantam Draft, was called in from his home in Port Coquitlam, British Columia, earlier in the day because forwards Bassen, Tyler Dietrich and Torrie Wheat were out injured and Devin Welsh came down with food poisoning. It was the third game of the season for the 15-year-old Hamill, who is allowed to play in five. … The game turned ugly after Seattle went up 4-0 with three fights in less than four minutes. … Two Seattle regulars, forward David Svagrovsky and defenseman Zack FitzGerald, were scratched because of injuries. But forward Ryan Gibbons returned to the lineup after missing 11 games with an injured shoulder.
First Period—1, Seattle, Durand 13 (Johner, Metcalfe), 1:17. 2, Seattle, Farmanara 6 (Gagnon, Hansen), 18:05. Second Period—3, Seattle, Thompson 11, 2:08 (sh). 4, Seattle, Maiser 7 (Gagnon), 2:42. Third Period—5, Everett, Heshka 2 (Blatchford, Hamill), 5:05. 6, Seattle, Simpson 2 (Barthel), 13:38. Shots on goal—Seattle 5-10-3—18. Everett 7-13-18—38. Power-play opportunities—Seattle 0 of 2. Everett 0 of 6. Goalies—Seattle, Bridges 10-15-3 (38 shots, 37 saves). Everett, Harvey 17-12-5 (6 shots, 3 saves), Wall (12 shots, 10 saves). |
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