EVERETT — Judgment day has arrived for the Everett Silvertips.
Tonight the Tips find out if they are worthy of a shot at the WHL’s U.S. Division title, welcoming the Tri-City Americans to Comcast Arena for a game that could determine the fate of the division race.
If Everett wins tonight the Tips spend the final 16 days of the regular season slugging it out for the division banner. Lose tonight and the Tips likely spend that time playing for second.
“You’re getting down there in games now, so this is a big game for us, no question,” Everett coach Craig Hartsburg said. “Lots of things can still happen, but obviously everyone’s running out of time to catch people. It just makes every game that much more important.”
Tri-City comes into tonight’s game with a three-point lead over Everett with one game in hand. An Americans regulation victory would put Everett five points behind with just eight games remaining, while Tri-City will have nine games remaining. That’s an unlikely deficit to overcome.
But if Everett wins in regulation, the Tips cut the deficit to one and even though Everett has one fewer game remaining, the Tips have a favorable schedule the rest of the way, including three games against a Prince George team with the worst record in the league.
Therefore, from a division championship standpoint, tonight’s game is essentially a must-win for Everett.
“Yeah, this is definitely a game for the division,” Tips goaltender Thomas Heemskerk said. “We’ve talked about earning the bonus points against lower teams, but this is probably bigger. Keeping the points away from them and giving them to us I think is more important.”
It’s somewhat improbable the Tips find themselves in this position to begin with. As recently as 16 days ago Tri-City had a comfortable nine-point lead atop the U.S. Division, and the Americans were on track to cruise to their third straight division title.
But a string of five Tri-City defeats in seven games, with Everett winning five of seven during that same span, cut the gap. Among those games was a 3-2 Tips victory at Tri-City last Friday, a result which pulled Everett within five and gave the Tips their first glimmer of hope.
“We’re three points behind them and this would get us that much closer,” Tips captain Zack Dailey said. “At the beginning of the season we set some goals and being in first place, not just in the U.S. but in the Western Conference, would be huge for us. Everyone wants it and we’ll show up to play. It should be a really good game.”
Tri-City got itself back on track Tuesday with a 6-0 thumping of Portland, a game in which the Americans scored three goals in the game’s first minute.
But Everett kept pace Wednesday, winning 2-1 at Spokane to set up tonight’s crunch encounter. Scott MacDonald’s third-period goal broke a 1-1 tie, and Heemskerk made 40 saves as the Tips pulled four points clear of Spokane for second.
“That was a huge win,” Dailey said. “They were two points in back of us and it was good to get distance between them. We didn’t really play our best game, but we found a way to win and that’s what good teams do.”
Tri-City presents a different kind of challenge for the Tips than Spokane did. Spokane is a defensively-oriented team that relies on its game-breaking forwards to create offense. The Americans, in contrast, come at opponents with wave after wave of speedy forwards, all of whom are capable of scoring.
“Right now they’re the best team (in the conference),” Hartsburg said about the Americans. “They’ve been consistent pretty much all year. They had a little bit of a down spell here, but I still look at them as a consistent, fast, highly-skilled team that every shift can put pressure on you.
“We have to play our team game first and stay with the plan,” Hartsburg added about countering Tri-City. “They have a lot of scoring up front, so if your awareness isn’t there defensively they’ll take full advantage.”
Both teams know what’s at stake tonight, so those in attendance should be in for a treat.
“It’s fun playing these games where you know what’s on the line,” Heemskerk said. “You hope that everyone elevates their game. For me, I enjoy it. The added pressure makes me want to try that much harder.”
Especially when the object on the line is a potential division championship.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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