Beach’s happy return

EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips tried to spoil Kyle Beach’s return to Comcast Arena.

However, Beach and the rest of the Lethbridge Hurricanes’ legion of doom built too large an advantage for the Tips to overcome.

Everett nearly clawed all the way back from a four-goal deficit, but the Tips fell just short, losing 5-4 to the Hurricanes Saturday night.

Everett trailed 4-0 just 23 minutes into the game and it looked like it would be a long night for the Tips. However, Everett fought back and had chances to tie it late — even when down two men in the last 10 seconds.

“I guess we got behind the eight-ball pretty quick there,” said Everett right wing Shane Harper, who scored the Tips’ fourth goal and nearly had a breakaway with the Tips killing a five-on-three with 10 seconds remaining. “We were battling uphill the whole game. In the third we finally got within one, but I guess it was too late. I thought we battled pretty hard. They got up quick and it’s hard to come back.”

Beach, the former Everett star who was traded to Lethbridge in January, had a goal and two assists in his first game back in Everett. And his line — Beach at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, Dwight King at 6-3 and 220, Carter Ashton at 6-3 and 200 — physically overwhelmed the Tips whenever it was on the ice.

When the Tips weren’t getting physically dominated by the Beach-King-Ashton line, they were committing lethal turnovers. Lethbridge built its 4-0 lead with the aid of two awful Everett giveaways deep in its own end.

“We played hard,” Everett coach John Becanic said. “Two things: We’re not physically strong enough to handle King, Ashton and Beach. You run the Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope and try to weather the storm when they’re out there. Then we made two real stupid turnovers.”

Ashton, Brennan Yadlowski, Austin Fyten and Brody Sutter also scored for Lethbridge (28-24-3-2), while a shaky Michael Tadjdeh made 23 saves in goal for the Hurricanes.

“I thought the game went well,” Lethbridge coach Michael Dyck said. “I wasn’t very happy with the penalty we took in the last four minutes, but for the most part I thought we played pretty well.”

Mike Alexander, Kellan Tochkin and Tyler Maxwell scored the other goals for Everett (22-24-7-2), which has now lost 11 of its past 12. Thomas Heemskerk, coming off a Herculean effort the previous night in Kelowna, was pulled after allowing four goals on 15 shots. Kent Simpson ended up taking a hard-luck loss after stopping 21 of 22.

“We just keep talking about mental strength,” Becanic said. “We know that physically we’re not going to be as big as most teams, so you have to be mentally stronger.

“I think any time you come back from a 4-0 deficit to make it a one-goal game you’ve got to be proud of your players for sticking to the gameplan and working.”

Lethbridge took control with three goals in the first period. The first came 5:23 in when Yadlowski, following up on a Hurricanes rush, put a rebound past a stranded Heemskerk. The second came at 8:34 when Everett defenseman Chris de la Lande turned the puck over to Brett Henke right beside the Everett net, allowing Henke to feed Fyten out front. Then with 21.9 seconds remaining in the period, Ashton spun and put a shot in the top corner after a dominating shift by the Hurricanes.

It looked like it was going to get ugly when Sutter took advantage of another Everett giveaway, this time by Paul Van de Velde, to fire a shot past Heemskerk 2:56 into the second period to make it 4-0.

But Everett clawed itself back into the game with two goals in the the next two minutes. Alexander got the Tips on the board 14 seconds later when his wrister from the point took a deflection past Tadjdeh. After another 1:03 Everett scored again, Tochkin skating the puck into the zone and beating Tadjdeh to the far corner.

It looked like Lethbridge stuck the dagger in again when Beach scored 3:29 into the third period, fanning on his first shot but beating Simpson with the follow-up attempt.

But again Everett fought back. Maxwell put in a rebound of Byron Froese’s jam attempt 13 seconds later, then Harper scored on a power play with Simpson pulled at 17:56 to set up a frenetic finish. Even after the Tips took two penalties in the last 28 seconds, Harper still had a half chance, but he slipped trying to make a move past the last defender.

Hurricanes 5, Silvertips 4

Lethbridge311—5

Everett022—4

@5. NHL box :First Period—1, Lethbridge, Yadlowski 3 (Ashton, Beach), 5:23. 2, Lethbridge, Fyten 11 (Henke), 8:34. 3, Lethbridge, Ashton 26 (King, Beach), 19:38. Penalties—Sbisa, Lethbridge (interference), 2:17; Taylor, Lethbridge (fighting), 8:16; Theriau, Everett (fighting), 8:16; Bancks, Lethbridge (instigator-fighting-10-minute misconduct), 17:58; Ellington, Everett (boarding-fighting), 17:58.

Second Period—4, Lethbridge, Sutter 4, 2:56. 5, Everett, Alexander 4 (Hunt, Burt), 3:10. 6, Everett, Tochkin 15 (Bauer), 4:13. Penalties—Boychuk, Lethbridge (tripping), 14:37; Dailey, Everett (hooking), 18:47.

Third Period—7, Lethbridge, Beach 20, 3:29. 8, Everett, Maxwell 21 (Froese, Tochkin), 3:42. 9, Everett, Harper 25 (Froese, Maxwell), 17:56 (pp). Penalties—Theriau, Lethbridge (tripping), 5:08; Beach, Lethbridge (slashing), 6:38; Alexander, Everett (roughing), 6:38; Orfino, Lethbridge (roughing), 8:20; Dailey, Everett (roughing), 8:20; Sceviour, Lethbridge (tripping-unsportsmanlike conduct), 15:14; Alexander, Everett (hooking), 19:32; Dailey, Everett (holding), 19:41.

Shots on goal—Lethbridge 10-16-11—37. Everett 6-9-12—27. Power-play opportunities—Lethbridge 0 of 4. Everett 1 of 4.

Goalies—Lethbridge, Tadjdeh 9-6-0-0 (27 shots, 23 saves). Everett, Heemskerk (15 shots, 11 saves), Simpson 8-7-3-1 (22 shots, 21 saves).

A—7,456.

Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog