EVERETT — As Portland scored the game’s opening goal in the second period Sunday, the air seemingly was being let out on the Silvertips’ opening weekend.
Everett was playing its third game in three days with a 17-year-old goaltender, Dustin Wolf, starting in each contest. Sloppy play was leading to odd-man rush after odd-man rush for the Winterhawks. It seemed inevitable Portland would bury one, and possibly more.
But, fearing an 0-3 start to the season, the Silvertips showed some resolve. And who else but Connor Dewar to lead the charge in turning the tide?
The Silvertips captain scored the game-tying goal and assisted on the game-winner as Everett scored all three goals in a 3-1 victory over Portland in the second period, capturing its first victory of the 2018-19 Western Hockey League season.
“You know what (Dewar) is? He is the Everett Silvertips,” Everett head coach Dennis Williams said. “He’s our heart and soul.
“His effort shift-in-and-shift out, there’s no one that compares to it. … It’s nice having him out there as the leader of the group because he brings it each day in practice and into the games.”
The Silvertips are incredibly short-handed up front, with Peter Melcher and Luke Ormsby nursing injuries and Dawson Butt two games into a three-game suspension.
Dewar, more than any Silvertip, has helped to pick up the slack. He’s frequently oscillated between playing on the wing and at center and is a focal point in Everett’s special-teams units.
It’s nothing new for the Minnesota Wild prospect.
“I asked him today if he still felt comfortable playing center and he said, ‘Yeah, it doesn’t matter where you put me,’ ” Williams said. “He’ll play defense if you need him to play defense. He does whatever it takes. For him it’s about getting the two points for his group and leading them the right way. He doesn’t have an ego.”
Dewar received a pass from Sean Richards and flicked a shot from the left circle past Portland goaltender Shane Farkas’ glove side to knot the score, 1-1, at the 7:03 mark.
Jackson Berezowski then scored his first career WHL goal, poking one past Farkas after a shot from Dewar caromed off the goaltender’s leg pad.
“It’s pretty special,” Berezowski said of his first career goal, adding the puck will be promptly displayed in his room back home in Yorktown, Saskatchewan. “My linemates pretty much set me up and all I had to do was tap it in there. But it was pretty special to get that first one out of the way.”
Two penalties within eight seconds gifted the Silvertips a 5-on-3 power play and Jake Christiansen clapped a one-timer past Farkas to put the Silvertips up 3-1 with 1:30 remaining in the second period.
The Silvertips peppered plenty of shots, 59 total, in a pair of losses to Vancouver to open the season, but Everett could muster just two goals. A change in offensive philosophy was needed, and the Silvertips delivered in the second.
“All the goals were screens tonight. That’s how you have to score in this league,” Williams said. “Especially against a kid like Farkas, who’s a good goalie over there. … If the goalies see it in this league, they’re too good and they’ll stop it.”
Everett started strong, out-shooting the Winterhawks, 8-4, and generating three power plays, but the Silvertips couldn’t bury any of their chances.
The game opened up in the second period, with both teams seemingly trading odd-man rushes. It was the Winterhawks who cashed in, as Jaydon Dureau buried a shot past Wolf’s blocker side to put Portland up 1-0 with 12:44 remaining in the period.
Wolf stopped 25 of 26 shots and boasts a 1.687 goals against average and a .934 save percentage in his first three games of the season.
Up Next
Everett travels to Tri-City on Friday for a 7:05 p..m. puck drop.
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