No déjà vu for Silvertips

EVERETT — It was all set up for an instant replay.

Riley Armstrong found himself on a breakaway with a chance to give the Everett Silvertips an overtime victory over the Tri-City Americans for the second time in two nights.

But Tyler Weiman made sure the Americans were saved from a bad case of deja vu.

The Tri-City goalie stopped Armstrong on the breakaway, and the Silvertips had to settle for a 1-1 tie against the Americans in a Western Hockey League game Wednesday night before a crowd of 2,939 at the Everett Events Center.

"I don’t know, maybe it just wasn’t meant to be two nights in a row," said Armstrong, who scored the winner in overtime at Tri-City on Tuesday.

Said Tri-City coach Don Nachbaur: "I feel fortunate that Tyler made a great save in overtime on the breakaway. But on the other side of the ledger we had our opportunities to score."

Torrie Wheat scored in the first period and Jeff Harvey made 22 saves for Everett, which goes into its Christmas break with a winning record at 14-13-5-1.

Jason Beeman scored in the first period and Weiman made 18 saves for Tri-City (17-13-6-2).

But it wasn’t until overtime that the game really heated up. Everett had three golden opportunities to score in the extra period. John Dahl and Wheat each had shots from point blank saved by Weiman. Then on the best chance of all, Weiman closed off the right post to deny Armstrong’s bid for yet another game winner.

"I was on a little breakaway and I just tried to do what I could, and I couldn’t get it over him," Armstrong said.

"I’m a little unsure how he jumped out of the gate so quick like that," Nachbaur said. "We got caught a little flat-footed."

Armstrong got the jump because the play was set up during the timeout that preceded the play. Straight from a face-off in Everett’s end, Dahl pushed the puck forward for Armstrong to race on to.

"I didn’t really think it was going to work and it just popped out there, so I got on my horse and beat the man to the puck," Armstrong said. "I was surprised I could skate that fast."

But he couldn’t beat Weiman.

Although Everett had to settle for a tie, the Silvertips were still happy with earning three points in two games against the U.S. Division leaders. Especially after a pair of tough losses over the weekend.

"We were on that little bit of a slide when we lost back-to-back games and everyone was feeling a little down in the locker room," Armstrong said. "So getting these three points from the first-place team in our division is good.

"We just came out and had 60 minutes to go before we could go home and see our families, so I think we all came out tonight and played pretty hard."

The Silvertips now have eight days off for Christmas. Everett’s next game is Dec. 27 at home against Seattle.

The teams traded power-play goals in the first period. Everett scored first 3:32 into the game. Mitch Love wristed a shot toward net from the center point and the shot deflected off Wheat’s leg and past Weiman on his glove side for a 1-0 Silvertips lead.

Tri-City responded at 14:04 with a goal that was a near mirror image of Everett’s. Clayton Stoner let fly with a shot from the point and Beeman, in front, tipped the puck up over Harvey’s stick to tie it a 1-1.

It looked like Everett had scored another power-play goal at 17:27 of the second period when the puck had apparently been poked in after Armstrong put it in front, causing the horn to sound off. However, the referee waived the goal off, ruling that the puck never crossed the goal line.

Slap shots: Everett goalie Jeff Harvey was honored as the Segment One winner from the U.S. Division for the Canada Post Cup Three Star Program. Points in the Canada Post Cup are accumulated based on selection as one of the three stars at the end of each game, with the first star receiving 10 points, the second star receiving five points and the third star receiving two points. Harvey receives a $100 donation from Canada Post that will be used to support the Western Hockey League education program. … Everett’s 3-2 overtime victory at Tri-City on Tuesday was the Silvertips’ 14th of the season. That total surpasses the season win total of the last WHL expansion — Vancouver was 13-49-6-4 in the 2001-02 season. Everett needed just 32 games to top Vancouver and at the current pace, the Silvertips could challenge Red Deer’s WHL record of 31 wins for an expansion team.

At Everett