VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Everett Silvertips have recently been at their best away from Xfinity Arena.
That was not the case Sunday afternoon, however, as the Tips allowed four consecutive goals in a 4-2 Western Hockey League loss to the Everett Giants in front of 5,089 fans at Pacific Coliseum.
The Tips (19-12-0-2, 40 points) lost for the first time in their past six road games, and lost their second straight game overall to Vancouver (13-19-3-2, 31 points). Though the Giants are in last place in the Western Conference, they’ve won seven of their past 11 games and took Everett to overtime on Dec. 18 in Vancouver.
Consequently the Giants earned five of a possible six points in the standings during what was a three-game set against Everett.
Patrick Bajkov scored twice for the Silvertips. However, in between Bajkov’s tallies the Giants scored four times to turn a 1-0 deficit through one period into a 4-1 advantage through two.
The Tips took the lead with less than a minute remaining in the opening period. From the right corner Graham Millar found Bajkov on the left side of the crease, and Bajkov tapped the shot past Vancouver goaltender Ryan Kubic for the 1-0 advantage at 19:14 in the first.
That’s how it stayed until the Giants struck three times in a span of 2 minutes, 48 seconds in the second period to flip the 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 advantage.
Ty Ronning scored first off tic-tac-toe passes from Carter Popoff and Trevor Cox as he put the puck past Everett goaltender Carter Hart at 8:37 in the second. It was Ronning’s team-leading 21st goal of the season.
Matt Barberis added a power-play goal on a rebound at 10:54, and Owen Hardy pushed the advantage to 3-1 at 11:20 in the second with a top-shelf goal from a tight angle against Hart.
Vancouver’s Alec Baer scored off his own rebound at 16:01 to make it 4-1. Bajkov answered with his second goal of the day 12 seconds later to cut the deficit to two, but that was as close as the Tips got.
Matt Fonteyne had two assists and Hart finished with 27 saves for Everett.
Cox and Chase Lang each had a pair of assists, and Kubic had 32 saves for his second straight win over the Tips.
Everett out-shot Vancouver 34-31. The game featured a single penalty called on each team. Vancouver converted its chance while Everett was 0-for-1.
The Tips return to action Wednesday, traveling to Kelowna to take on the defending WHL champion Rockets at 7 p.m.
Giants 4, Silvertips 2
Everett101—2
Vancouver031—4
Fist Period—1, Everett, Bajkov 8 (Millar, Fonteyne), 19:14. Penalties—No Penalties
Second Period—2, Vancouver, Ronning 21 (Popoff, Cox), 8:37. 3, Vancouver, Barberis 6 (Lang, Cox), 10:54 (PP). 4, Vancouver, Hardy 2 (Foster, Plouffe), 11:20. Penalties—Millar Evt (interference), 10:10; Flaman Van (interference on goaltender), 13:48.
Third Period—5, Vancouver, Baer 11 (Lang, Menell), 16:01. 6, Everett, Bajkov 9 (Fonteyne, MacDonald), 16:13. Penalties—No Penalties
Shots on Goal—Everett 15-6-13-34. Vancouver 10-11-10-31.
Power Play Opportunities—Everett 0 / 1; Vancouver 1 / 1.
Goalies—Everett, Hart 19-11-0-2 (31 shots, 27 saves). Vancouver, Kubic 8-9-2-0 (34 shots, 32 saves).
A—5,089
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