Giants snap Silvertips’ winning streak

EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips had their chance against the hottest team in the Western Hockey League on Tuesday night.

But the Vancouver Giants showed why they’re off to the best start in the league.

With Everett poised for a comeback, Vancouver’s Kyle Bruce scored a back-breaking shorthanded goal midway through the third period, and the Giants went on to defeat the Silvertips 4-1at the Everett Events Center.

Vancouver (8-1-2) won its league-leading eighth game, while Everett (2-5-1) saw its two-game winning streak snapped.

"That was a killer," Everett’s Jovan Matic said about Bruce’s goal. "We were playing with a lot of energy, but after that you could see that we slowed down a little bit."

Matic had just scored a power-play goal 1 minute, 31 seconds into the third period to cut the lead to 2-1, and Everett was back on the power play thanks to Joe Logan’s hooking penalty at 9:58.

However, the Giants were able to clear the puck out of the zone right into the path of Bruce, who was set free on a one-on-one with Everett goalie Jeff Harvey. Bruce beat Harvey up high to Harvey’s glove side at 10:33, taking the life out of the home crowd.

Vancouver’s Gilbert Brule added a power-play goal on a rocket into the upper corner at 14:23, his second goal of the game, to seal the victory.

"It felt a little like our first three games," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "We could easily have won, but you look up at the end and it’s 4-1, and it doesn’t feel like it was 4-1. It feels like we played OK. We had some really good scoring chances in the first and second periods, but we didn’t convert ours and they converted theirs."

Indeed, Everett came out on fire, and had Torrie Wheat converted his chance at an open net 1:25 into the game — his shot ended up banking off both posts — it may have been a different story.

"We thought they were as good as we’ve seen this year early in the game," Vancouver coach Dean Evason said of the Silvertips. "They had lots of life and jump and they pressed us hard. They had us back on our heels. The entire first period I thought we were behind."

However, Vancouver goaltender Aaron Sorochan withstood Everett’s onslaught, and once the Giants settled down, they were able to show off their high skill level. An impressive display of passing in the first period led to a 2-0 Vancouver lead.

First, it was Kevin Hayman who released Mitch Bartley into open space in the attacking zone. Bartley measured his shot and wristed the puck past Harvey for a 1-0 lead at 14:58.

More pretty passing led the Vancouver’s second goal four minutes later. Everett had just killed off a penalty when Vancouver’s Adam Courchaine, drifting behind the Everett net. He flashed a pass into the crease to Brule, whose one-timer gave Harvey no chance at the save, making it 2-0 at 19:51.

Everett slowed Vancouver’s passing in the second period and finally struck for a goal of its own early in the third. Riley Armstrong’s shot from the left slot rebounded right in front of the goal, where Matic was on hand to clean it up for his second goal of the season.

Sorochan finished the game with 25 saves to improve to 4-0-1. Harvey made 29 stops and dropped to 2-4.

Slap shots: Harvey was an honorable mention selection for WHL Player of the Week for Oct. 6-13. Harvey held both Seattle and Regina to one goal, leading the Silvertips to their first two wins in franchise history. Brandon forward Eric Fehr won the award, scoring four goals in two games. … Tuesday’s game matched the Vancouver power play unit, ranked second in the WHL converting 23.9 percent of opportunities into goals, against Everett’s second-ranked penalty-killing unit (88.6 percent). Vancouver finished the game 1-for-4 on the power play. … With Silvertip forwards Tyler Dietrich, Curtis Billsten, Marc Desloges and Michael Wuchterl all scratched Tuesday, defensemen Ryan Blatchford and Stewart Thiessen were drafted into occasional forward duty.

Giants 4, Silvertips 1