KENT — It was a mob scene.
There stood Kyle Beach outside the Everett Silvertips’ locker room at Kent Valley Ice Centre, surrounded by adoring youth players shouting his name and demanding autographs.
It was a fitting tribute to Beach’s performance Saturday night in the Everett Silvertips final preseason game, as well as an acknowledgement of what Beach could achieve this season.
The ultra-talented left winger scored two goals, including the game-winner 48 seconds into overtime, and the Silvertips completed the exhibition season by defeating the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-3.
Beach’s game-winner gave Everett a final preseason record of 3-3. The defending U.S. Division-champion Tips open the regular season at home Friday against Tri-City.
“I’m satisfied with the effort put forth,” said Everett coach John Becanic of the preseason. “Every single player in that locker room is committed to what we’re trying to do here as an organization. Any time you have players doing exactly what you want them to do at 100-percent effort, I don’t know how any coach could be dissatisfied.”
Jonathan Harty added a goal and two assists and Dan Gendur also scored for Everett. Shayne Barrie made 29 saves in goal for the Tips.
Jan Eberle, Brenden Silvester and Bud Holloway scored for Seattle. Riku Helenius finished with 18 saves in goal for the T-birds.
With so many players still away at NHL training camps, including star offensive players Peter Mueller and Zach Hamill, Everett has been forced to roll out the youngsters throughout the preseason, whose numbers Beach can be counted among.
But Beach is no ordinary 17-year-old. The reigning Western Hockey League Rookie of the Year has been a force throughout the preseason, and it was fitting he scored Everett’s final exhibition goal. He skated into the zone one-on-two, circled around two defensemen, then fired a shot past Helenius and into the top corner, ending the contest.
“Harty made a great play up to me and I just attacked the net,” Beach said. “The D-men got mixed up, I got lucky and put the shot in.
“With that win it’s a great time to head into the regular season,” Beach added. “Obviously we have quite a bit more work to do, but now it’s for keeps and we’ve got to go out there and work.”
Everett looked tired in the third period, in part because the Tips were forced into several long shifts. But that was countered by the play of goaltender Shayne Barrie.
Barrie, auditioning for the backup job, struggled his last time out when he gave up seven goals against Portland. But after a shaky start he settled down and turned away everything the T-birds threw at him in the third period, stopping 17 shots.
“He knows he needs to step up a bit,” Becanic said of Barrie. “Part of being a goalie is bouncing back after a bad performance. He stopped a penalty shot, made two or three point-blank saves and he was there for us.”
Barrie’s efforts allowed the Tips to tie it at 9:21 of the third. Everett broke three-on-two, and Lukas Vartovnik sent a perfect drop pass to Harty, who wristed a shot past Helenius to make it 3-3.
After a scoreless first period, the game came alive in the second with three goals in 40 seconds. Eberle and Silvester scored 10 seconds apart to give Seattle a 2-0 lead at 8:18, but Beach scored at 8:48 to make it 2-1. Holloway restored Seattle’s two-goal cushion at 16:39, but Gendur scored on the power play at 18:13 to cut the lead back to one.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/section/BLOG12
Silvertips 4, Thunderbirds 3 (OT)
Everett0211—4
Seattle0300—3
First Period—No goals. Penalties—Olson, Seattle (interference), 2:57; Olson, Seattle (delay of game), 5:46; Beach, Everett (goaltender interference), 6:00; Potuer, Everett (holding), 11:00; Potuer, Everett (tripping), 19:10; Sonne, Everett (hooking), 20:00.
Second Period—1, Seattle, Eberle 1, 8:08. 2, Seattle, Silvester 1, 8:18. 3, Everett, Beach 1 (Harty), 8:48. 4, Seattle, Holloway 1 (Boyer, Hanson), 16:39. 5, Everett, Gendur 1 (Campos, Dailey), 18:13 (pp). Penalties—Bakken, Seattle (hooking), 4:29; Sonne, Everett (elbowing), 9:29; Helenius, Seattle (delay of game, served by Nielsen), 10:25; Potuer, Everett (tripping), 13:29; Gendur, Everett (holding), 14:25; Eberle, Seattle (checking from behind), 16:50.
Third Period—6, Everett, Harty 1 (Vartovnik, Sonne), 9:21. Penalties—Harper, Everett (holding), 9:41; Dillon, Seattle (interference), 12:10; Beach, Everett (roughing), 13:18.
Overtime—7, Everett, Beach 2 (Harty), 0:48. Penalties—None.
Shots on goal—Everett 5-10-6-1—22. Seattle 5-10-17-0—32. Power-play opportunities—Everett 1 of 6. Seattle 0 of 9.
Goalies—Everett, Barrie 1-0 (32 shots, 29 saves). Seattle, Helenius 0-1 (22 shots, 18 saves).
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