VANCOUVER, B.C. — The game was over.
The Vancouver Giants had dominated the Everett Silvertips and had a two-goal lead with less than four minutes remaining.
But as Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
Kellan Tochkin scored twice in the game’s final minutes to tie it up, then Matt Ius scored the decisive goal in the shootout as the Tips stunned the Giants 4-3 Wednesday night.
Kyle Beach also scored and Shayne Barrie made 38 saves in goal for Everett (4-4-1-0), which picked up its first road victory of the season.
Tyler Maxwell and Shane Harper also converted in the shootout as the Tips survived a nine-round thriller to prevail 3-2.
James Wright, Jonathon Blum and Mike Piluso scored goals and Tyson Sexsmith made 23 saves in net for Vancouver (7-0-0-3), which is 0-3 in shootouts this season. Evander Kane and James Henry scored in the shootout for the Giants.
Everett appeared dead and buried when Piluso scored on the power play with 3 minutes, 24 seconds remaining in the game to give the Giants a 3-1 lead.
However, the Tips caught a break 23 seconds later when Tochkin sent the puck out front, where it deflected into the goal off a Giant player’s skate, once again making it a one-goal game.
Barrie was pulled for an extra attacker, and after an extended period of Everett pressure the Tips cashed in at 18:37, Tochkin converting a nice feed from Harper to force overtime and give the Tips a chance to win it in the shootout.
Vancouver grabbed the lead 10:52 into the first period. Wright got around his defender, then stickhandled the puck past Barrie to make it 1-0.
The Tips did a good job of staying out of the penalty box and keeping the Giants’ league-leading power play off the ice. However, given a moment of daylight the Giants took advantage, scoring on their first power play of the game at 16:37 of the second period. Casey Pierro-Zabotel made a nice pass for Blum to one-time past Barrie and make 2-0.
Vancouver had controlled play throughout, but Everett got back into the game 7:29 into the third period when Beach scored on a breakaway to make it 2-1.
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