PORTLAND, Ore. – Luck, opponent misfortune, divine intervention. Those may not be the textbook hockey offensive strategies, but with the problems the Everett Silvertips have had scoring recently, they’ll take goals any way they can get them.
Alex Leavitt scored the deciding goal when Portland defenseman Jordie Fike gave him the puck right in front of the Winter Hawk net, and the Silvertips desperately hung on for a 2-1 victory Sunday night in Game 2 of their Western Hockey League first-round playoff series.
Shaun Heshka broke Everett’s three-game scoreless drought 3 minutes, 2 seconds into the game and Michael Wall was stellar with 32 saves in net for the Silvertips, who head home for Tuesday’s Game 3 with the series tied 1-1.
“This was huge for us,” Heshka said, “I don’t think we could afford to go down 2-0 with the team they have. It would have been a pretty big battle for us to come back, so it was pretty huge to get a win and get a split.”
Portland’s Brandon Dubinsky had scored a short-handed goal – Portland’s second short-handed tally in two games – 50 seconds into the second period to tie the score 1-1, and the Winter Hawks seemed to be gaining momentum.
But seven minutes later Fike, beginning a breakout from behind his own net, handed the puck on a platter to Leavitt, putting a pass right on Leavitt’s stick as Leavitt was cutting in from the left circle. Leavitt made a quick move to his forehand and put the puck into the upper corner of goal to restore Everett’s lead at 7:45.
“It was a little surprising,” Leavitt said. “I made a giveaway last game in the neutral zone and they went down and capitalized, so the complete reverse happened tonight. They were trying to make a regular breakout play and I just got lucky. I didn’t even really try to intercept the pass, it just hit my stick and before I knew it I was all alone with the goalie.”
Said Fike: “I saw the lane and thought it was open when I passed it. He just got a stick on it.
“Those things happen, I’ve just got to bounce back.”
That goal proved to be enough for Everett as Portland, despite long stretches of heavy pressure on the Silvertip net, was unable to find a way past Wall.
“It definitely took the wind out of our sails,” Portland coach Mike Williamson said about Leavitt’s goal. “Leavitt’s a good hockey player and you definitely don’t want to give him the puck in that area. But I thought our guys responded really well. We didn’t quit, we played hard after that and created lots of chances”
After Leavitt’s goal, it was white-knuckle time the rest of the game for Everett. Portland poured on the pressure, particularly in the third period when the puck spent almost the entire 20 minutes in the Silvertip zone. But even though the Everett defense spent most of the period in scramble mode, Wall made sure the puck stayed out of the net.
Portland ended up outshooting Everett 33-23.
“We were scrambling a little bit,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “We had some bumps and bruises, so we had some mismatched lines and it was a little scrambly at the end. That’s my job and I got it a little more scrambly than I should have because it’s my job to keep the right people ready to go. But somehow we got it done.”
After going a whopping 214:47 since last finding the net, the Tips needed just 3:02 of Sunday’s game to break out of their slump. Zach Hamill won a faceoff back to Heshka, who pulled the puck to the center point, wound up and slapped a shot through traffic, past Portland goaltender Blake Grenier and into the right corner, giving Everett a 1-0 lead.
Everett then gave Portland the tying goal 50 seconds into the second period. Dubinsky intercepted Mitch Love’s soft pass along the blue line during an Everett power play, broke away and beat Wall high to his stick side, tying the score at 1-1 with his third goal of the series.
Slap shots: Everett left wing Karel Hromas was held out the final two periods with what Constantine described as flu-like symptoms. … Everett had one of its injured players return to the lineup as forward Zach Sim, who missed the last two games with a concussion, suited up. He took Matt Sawa’s spot in the lineup. However, defenseman Taylor Ellington and forward Michael Wuchterl remained sidelined because of their concussions. … Portland’s leading scorer Dan DaSilva was scratched for the second straight game. DaSilva is also suffering from the effects of a concussion.
Silvertips 2, Winter Hawks 1
Everett110-2
Portland010-1
First Period-1, Everett, Heshka 1 (Hamill), 3:02.
Second Period-2, Portland, Dubinsky 3, 0:50 (sh). 3, Everett, Leavitt 1, 7:45.
Third Period-No goals.
Shots on goal-Everett 14-7-2-23. Portland 13-11-9-33. Power-play opportunities-Everett 0 of 5. Portland 0 of 3.
Goalies-Everett, Wall 1-1 (33 shots, 32 saves). Portland, Grenier 1-1 (23 shots, 21 saves).
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