EVERETT — It only took moments to realize the magic was still there.
Last Friday, the Everett Silvertips faced the daunting task of playing the feared Vancouver Giants on the road, the same team that outscored the Tips by a combined 18-0 the previous three times the teams played.
But the Tips had a secret weapon. Tyler Maxwell was back, reuniting the line of Maxwell, Kellan Tochkin and Byron Froese.
On the game’s first shift, Maxwell, Tochkin and Froese kept the Giants pinned in their own zone. Then late in the first period they scored. In their first game together again, Maxwell, Tochkin and Froese combined for six points and sparked the Tips to a 5-3 shocker of Vancouver.
The “Kid Line” was back.
Everett’s line of 17-year-old rookies, which has been the revelation of the season for the Tips, is back to its old tricks, and they’ll have to pull all those tricks out of the bag for Everett to prevail over Tri-City in the first round of the playoffs.
“It’s nice to have them available,” Everett coach John Becanic said. “Finally we have two lines that are pretty threatening.”
Said Froese: “It feels like we’re back home, back with the guys we feel comfortable with.”
The Kid Line was Everett’s most consistent source of offense all season. Coincidentally, it first formed during the third period of a different game in Vancouver, helping the Tips dig out of a three-goal, third-period deficit before Everett won 4-3 in a shootout on Oct. 15.
The chemistry that formed between the three was immediate, and they quickly became Everett’s most dangerous offensive line. In the 45 full games they played together, they combined to produce 48 goals and 87 assists, good for exactly a point per game per player.
But that all came to a halt in February. Maxwell suffered a cracked kneecap while blocking a shot — in yet another game at Vancouver — and was out for a month. During that month, the Tips tried all kinds of solutions for filling Maxwell’s spot, but no one could create the same kind of chemistry with Tochkin and Froese. During those 13 games without Maxwell, Tochkin’s and Froese’s production fell off sharply as they combined for just 18 points (.69 points per game per player).
“It was definitely different,” Froese said about playing without Maxwell. “We had a new linemate all the time and nothing really stuck. It was different. We had to change our style of game a little bit.”
As difficult as it was for Froese and Tochkin, it was all the more frustrating for Maxwell watching in the stands.
“It was hard to watch,” Maxwell said. “It seemed like everyone we tried to fit in there didn’t match as well as the three of us did.”
Maxwell eventually healed, but there’s always the question of whether a line that had something special, after being separated for a substantial length of time, will be able to recapture what it once had.
However, that concern never crossed their minds, and it turns out they had good reason not to be concerned. Though it wasn’t official until the return game in Vancouver, Maxwell, Tochkin and Froese knew the magic was back after just one practice.
“The first practice out when (Maxwell) was wearing a yellow jersey (to indicate an injured player) we could feel it,” Tochkin said. “The chemistry was there right away, we were making plays and it was a great feeling.”
After the Vancouver game, they combined for another five points in Everett’s 3-2 loss to Chilliwack the following night. Even without registering a point in Everett’s final regular season game, the 10-0 debacle in which no Everett player performed well, the Kid Line is statistically back up to speed.
The timing couldn’t have been better for the Tips, who were reeling going into the playoffs. Everett was 3-10 in the games Maxwell missed and looked like a team set for a short stay in the playoffs.
But even though all three are rookies who tonight will be playing their first ever WHL playoff game, Maxwell, Tochkin and Froese being back together gives the Tips a glimmer of hope.
“We don’t have a ton of secondary scoring from our third and fourth lines,” Becanic said. “Our scoring has mostly come from the top two lines and the power play. For us to win the series we’re going to have to score goals, and that’s their role.”
A role they perform much better when they’re together.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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