EVERETT – It’s almost as if the Everett Silvertips have channeled the spirit of Bill Murray’s character from the movie “Groundhog Day.” No matter the opponent, the venue or who’s in the lineup, the Silvertips keep reliving the same nightmarish game over and over and over again.
Everett suffered through the same script it has throughout its recent swoon, and the Silvertips’ struggles continued with a 4-2 loss to the Portland Winter Hawks on Friday night in a Western Hockey League game.
“I think quite a few of the boys think they’re a little snakebit out there, and I think probably the fans do too,” said Everett right wing Curtis Billsten, who scored Everett’s first goal. That’s the way things seem to be going.”
Everett (21-20-6-2) lost for the eighth time in its past nine games, allowing Portland (21-22-4-4) to tie the Silvertips for second place in the U.S. Division in the process. And after going more than a season-and-a-half without suffering a regular season four-game losing streak, Everett has now had two in three weeks.
The Everett Events Center crowd of 7,350 witnessed the same story that’s plagued the Silvertips throught this nine-game slide. Once again Everett gave up the first goal of the game – the Tips surrendered the first goal in eight of the nine games; once again Everett gave up a short-handed goal, which has happened in four straight; and once again Everett gave up a goal on a bad turnover around the net.
So even though Everett had two key players return form injury, played with a lot of energy and created plenty of scoring chances, the Silvertips once again ended up on the losing end – not the way Everett wanted to start its pivotal three-game weekend against divisional foes.
“We’ve given up goals,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine lamented. “I don’t know that we’re playing much differently than we ever had, pucks are just going into our net a little more. It’s hard to win when the other team scores first, and when you’re down two within 10 minutes you’re going to have a tough time winning games. So we definitely have to start stronger.”
The game’s tone was set early when Portland’s Garrett Festerling took advantage of Zach Hamill’s error, scoring a short-handed goal 3 minutes, 47 seconds into the game, and Michael Funk gave Portland a commanding 2-0 lead five minutes later, sweeping in a shot off the post.
Brandon Dubinsky also scored, Dan DaSilva added an empty-netter and Blake Grenier made 23 saves in goal for the Winter Hawks.
“It seems like were almost always fighting from behind against Everett,” said Portland coach Mike Williamson, whose team won for just the fifth time in 20 meetings with Everett over the past two seasons. “So it was a big focus of ours to be prepared and I was really proud of the way our guys were ready. I think being up was huge.”
Tyler Dietrich, playing for the first time in a month, scored Everett’s other goal – a goal after the Tips pulled their goaltender midway through the third period trailing 3-1. Michael Wall gave up two goals on eight shots before being pulled midway through the first period. Leland Irving made 16 saves in relief.
After Festerling and Funk gave Portland the lead, Everett turned up the pressure and it finally paid off at 5:59 of the second period when Billsten put in the rebound after a Mark Kress’ shot. But Portland stunted Everett’s momentum 48 seconds later, Dubinsky finishing off a three-on-one after Everett was caught in a line change.
Dietrich gave Everett life at 10:45 of the third, lifting a backhanded shot over Grenier. The Tips continued to press, but Alex Leavitt’s high sticking penalty with 1:35 remaining ended that, and DaSilva put the game away with 1:00 remaining.
Slap shots: The Silvertips welcomed two key components back to the lineup Friday with the returns from injury of Dietrich and defenseman Mitch Love. Love missed the past three games because of a shoulder injury, and Dietrich sat out the previous 11 games because of a concussion. … Speaking of injuries, Portland’s defense was decimated with Michael Sauer (hip), Kevin Tipper (back) and Jordie Fike (shoulder) all scratched. As a result, the Winter Hawks dressed just 19 players and just four defensemen. Center Alex Aldred was used as a defenseman.
Winter Hawks 4, Silvertips 2
Portland211-4
Everett011-2
First Period-1, Portland, Festerling 10, 3:47 (sh). 2, Portland, Funk 4 (Golin), 8:35.
Second Period-3, Everett, Billsten 10 (Kress), 5:59. 4, Portland, Dubinsky 17 (Woolger, Funk), 6:47.
Third Period-5, Everett, Dietrich 12 (Hromas), 10:45. 6, Portland, DaSilva 22 (Dubinsky, Coburn), 19:00 (pp-en).
Shots on goal-Portland 13-4-9-26. Everett 11-9-5-25. Power-play opportunities-Portland 1 of 2. Everett 0 of 5.
Goalies-Portland, Grenier 4-7 (25 shots, 23 saves). Everett, Wall (8 shots, 6 saves), Irving 5-6-1 (17 shots, 16 saves).
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