EVERETT — There haven’t been many bright spots for the Everett Silvertips this season. But one has been the play of Josh Birkholz, and Wednesday night Birkholz put an exclamation point on his breakout season.
Everett’s overage center delighted the Comcast Arena crowd by scoring a hat trick, leading the Tips to a 5-2 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds.
“It feels good,” Birkholz said of his three goals. “The last couple games (Seattle goaltender Calvin) Pickard has had my number — give him credit, he’s a great goalie. But it feels good to put some home on him.”
Birkholz scored once in each period, finishing off his hat trick with a shot off the rush with 2 minutes, 37 seconds remaining. The hat trick was the second of his career.
The 20-year-old from Maple Grove, Minn., leads Everett in goals (17), assists (15) and points (32), and his 17 goals are just one off last season’s total in roughly half the number of games.
“That’s what he can do,” Everett coach Mark Ferner said of Birkholz. “He’s got great speed and a tremendous shot. We need him to do that a lot more. When we have an opportunity to shoot the puck, the tendency of our whole group is to look for the prettiest play. But putting the puck on net is often the best play.”
Nick Walters and Josh Winquist also scored for Everett (7-22-1-7), while JT Barnett chipped in with three assists. Kent Simpson played a solid game in goal for Everett, turning aside 32 shots.
Branden Troock and Marcel Noebels scored for Seattle (16-19-0-1). Calvin Pickard stopped 22 shots in net for the T-birds.
While Birkholz led Everett’s charge offensively, it was the Tips’ work on the penalty kill that made sure the lead stood up. Everett had perhaps its best penalty-killing game of the season, denying all five of Seattle’s power-play attempts and making it difficult for the T-birds to even get off a shot. When Seattle did manage to set up in the offensive zone, the Tips — led by Kohl Bauml — did everything they could to make sure the shots didn’t get through on goal.
Everett’s biggest kill came at the beginning of the third period. The Tips led 3-1 after two, but Everett defenseman Brennan Yadlowski was given a match penalty for attempt to injure following the second-period horn. That gave Seattle a five-minute power play to begin the third.
It was a golden opportunity for the T-birds to get back into the game. However, Everett calmly killed off the penalty, and toward the end of the power play the Tips even scored a short-handed goal — Winquist converting a breakaway off a stretch pass from Dominik Bittner to emphasize Everett’s dominance on the kill.
“It’s just a matter of being committed to (the penalty kill),” Ferner said. “It’s just hard work. Over the last little while we’ve made some adjustments, started being more aggressive to loose pucks. But tonight our focus was on just killing the penalty, not trying to score short-handed goals, and it was all because of hard work.”
The Tips also were indebted to the defensive core of Walters, Bittner, Josh Caron and Evan Morden, which controlled the defensive zone and limited good scoring opportunities. Those four were particularly solid after Yadlowski received the boot.
An energetic first period saw Everett rally after falling behind. Seattle got on the board just 3:11 into the game when Troock cut across the slot, got Simpson to bite on a fake and fired home. But Birkholz answered immediately, snapping a shot past Pickard following a quick feed from Cody Fowlie a mere 1:10 later.
The Tips took the lead during a four-on-three power play at 14:37, a nice feed from Winquist giving Walters the chance to control and shoot past a stranded Pickard to make it 2-1.
Birkholz got his second goal of the game as Everett cashed in on the power play again at 6:43 of the second. Barnett tracked down a loose puck and passed to the back door, where Birkholz fired a shot that squeezed past Pickard to make it 3-1.
Seattle had a brief glimmer of hope when Noebels scored a short-hander at 9:16 of the third to cut Everett’s lead to 4-2. But the Tips shut it down after that, and Birkholz finished it off by sending the hats flying onto the ice.
Slap shots
Winger Matt Grant made his Everett debut. Grant, an 18-year-old whose rights were acquired earlier this season in the trade that sent goaltender Luke Siemens to Moose Jaw, joined the team last week. Grant was quickly moved onto the third line and showed some good skills and instincts. … Everett broke out of a 3-for-43 slump on the power play with its two power-play goals. The Tips hadn’t scored twice on the power play in a game since Nov. 18 against Portland.
Silvertips 5, Thunderbirds 2
Seattle101—2
Everett212—5
First Period—1, Seattle, Troock 7 (Doty, Aschim), 3:11. 2, Everett, Birkholz 15 (Fowlie, Barnett), 4:21. 3, Everett, Walters 5 (Winquist, Yadlowski), 14:37 (pp). Penalties—Samoridny, Everett (tripping), 10:13; Deagle, Seattle (unsportsmanlike conduct), 13:39; Verdino, Seattle (interference), 14:09.
Second Period—4, Everett, Birkholz 16 (Barnett), 6:43 (pp). Penalties—Mychan, Everett (interference), 2:27; Troock, Seattle (hooking), 5:06; Deagle, Seattle (slashing), 17:38; Yadlowski, Everett (match penalty-attempt to injure), 20:00.
Third Period—5, Everett, Winquist 9 (Bittner, Barnett), 4:39 (sh). 6, Seattle, Noebels 10, 9:16 (sh). 7, Everett, Birkholz 17 (Bittner), 17:23. Penalties—Noebels, Seattle (interference), 6:57; Jacobs, Seattle (checking from behind), 8:28; Walters, Everett (holding), 13:50; Troock, Seattle (hooking), 15:31; Fowlie, Everett (hooking), 16:31.
Shots on goal—Seattle 14-8-12—34. Everett 11-7-9—27. Power-play opportunities—Seattle 0 of 5. Everett 2 of 6.
Goalies—Seattle, Pickard 16-16-0-1 (27 shots, 22 saves). Everett, Simpson 6-17-1-5 (34 shots, 32 saves).
A—3,743.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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