Last season the Tips and T-birds once again found themselves jockeying for position in March as they raced to secure a playoff spot. On March 9 Everett traveled to Kent to face the T-birds with a chance to pull within one point of seventh-place Seattle.
Everett’s Dawson Leedahl scored with 2:57 remaining to give the Tips a 4-3 lead, then a little more than a minute later chaos broke out. It started with Everett defenseman Mirco Mueller’s hit on Alexander Delnov, escalated with Evan Wardley’s retaliation hit on Mueller, then concluded with Seattle goaltender Brandon Glover, who had gone to the bench in favor of an extra attacker, coming off the bench to fight Austin Lotz.
Everett wound up winning 4-3, and the aftermath could have had serious consequences. Not only did the Tips pull within one point of Seattle, Wardley and Glover both received two-game suspensions with three games remaining.
The Tips picked up three points in their three remaining games. But the T-birds also picked up three points, despite the absence of their No. 1 goaltender for two of those games, to hold onto seventh. Both teams then went on to perform better than expected in the first round of the playoffs, but still were eliminated. Seattle won the first three games against B.C. Division champion Kelowna, but ultimately became the second team in league history to lose a 3-0 series lead. Everett stole a pair of road games against U.S. Division champion Portland, but was overwhelmed in all three games at home, losing the series 4-2.
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