EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips’ power play made it a series.
When taken away Wednesday night, the Tips had few places to turn.
The Tri-City Americans rendered Everett’s greatest weapon impotent, and the Americans skated to a comfortable 4-2 victory over the Tips in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series. The victory gave Tri-City a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven showdown.
“Special teams were the difference in the game,” Everett coach John Becanic lamented.
Tri-City is the heavy favorite in the series between the second- and seventh-seeded teams in the Western Conference. However, Everett achieved a split of the first two games in Kennewick, largely because of its success on the power play. The Tips scored on five of their 12 power play opportunities through the first two games.
Wednesday was a different story. Tri-City’s penalty kill left the Everett power play looking sloppy and haphazard, shutting the Tips out on six opportunities. Without the scoring boost from its power play, Everett was unable to generate enough offense to keep up with the high-flying Americans.
“We played all right,” Everett captain Zack Dailey said. “We made some stupid plays that they capitalized on, and our power play wasn’t going like it has been.”
Mitch Fadden and Jason Reese each notched a goal and an assist to lead Tri-City. Justin Feser added a crucial goal late in the first period that gave the Americans a 2-0 lead, Johnny Lazo also scored, and Chet Pickard made 26 saves in net for Tri-City, which regained home-ice advantage in the series.
“Even though we lost that second game, I still felt like we played hard and controlled the tempo,” Tri-City coach Don Nachbaur said. “We had to come back and play hard tonight and I think we accomplished that.”
Zack Dailey and Tyler Maxwell scored for Everett. For Maxwell, it was his third straight game with a goal and his fifth overall. Thomas Heemskerk did what he could to keep the Tips in it, making 27 saves.
In the first two games, Everett’s power play not only provided goals, it also gave the underdog Tips early confidence. Everett used the power play to score in the first two minutes of both Games 1 and 2.
But Tri-City didn’t let the Everett power play run rampant again. The Americans made it more difficult for the Tips to set up in the offensive zone, and once Everett did get set up they made sure there were no backdoor passing lanes to Maxwell.
“You don’t change what you’re doing because it’s working, and they change what they’re doing because it wasn’t working,” Becanic said. “You try and make adjustments during the game, and we’ll be better on Friday. But you’re not privy to what they changed until you see it on the ice, and when you’re trying to adjust it looks sloppy at times because it’s something guys haven’t done in practice. So we certainly have to try and fix that.”
For Nachbaur, it was more a matter of effort than strategy.
“I think we put a little more passion into our (penalty killing) tonight,” he said. “We let up and relax at times (in Games 1 and 2). But our forte all year has been that we come at teams hard, and we let up in the first two games in that area.”
Meanwhile, Tri-City took advantage of its own power-play chances, using crisp passing to score on each of its first two power plays en route to a 4-1 lead.
The first of those power-play markers came just 5 minutes, 57 seconds into the game. Fadden put a shot from the right slot into the top of the net off a nice feed across from Taylor Procyshen, and the Americans were on their way.
The story could have been different if Everett’s Dale Hunt hadn’t smacked the post on a chance to tie it with the net gaping, and the Americans scored their crucial second goal with just 32.2 seconds remaining in the first period. Feser reached through his marker to redirect Jordan Messier’s centering feed past Heemskerk, making it 2-0.
The Americans made it 3-0 6:47 into the second period when Reese’s shot from the point took a wicked deflection off Lazo past Heemskerk. Everett got on the board 36 seconds later when, playing four-on-four, Shane Harper fed a trailing Dailey on the break and Dailey made a move around Pickard. But Tri-City restored its three-goal lead on the power play at 16:09, Reese short-hopping a loose puck past Heemskerk.
Everett pulled within two again at 11:07 of the third, Jesse Burt picking up a rebound on the rush and feeding Maxwell with Pickard out of position, but the Tips could get no closer.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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