Questionable call allows Tips to slip past Birds

SEATTLE – It’s funny the way things work out sometimes.

Incensed over a delay-of-game penalty, the Everett Silvertips ended up the unexpected beneficiaries when Riley Armstrong came out of the box to score a wonder goal, giving the Silvertips a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday night in Western Hockey League action at KeyArena.

As a result, the Silvertips (10-9-3-1) broke the .500 barrier for the first time in franchise history. And as far as Everett coach Kevin Constantine was concerned, it couldn’t have happened in a better way.

“I thought it was poetic justice because there was no way we deserved that penalty,” Constantine said. “We were trying to get our guy on the ice and in a 1-1 game like that, I don’t know if it’s the time for a ref to try to make a point of that sort. It’s kind of poetic that on what I thought was a questionable call we came right back and scored at the tail end of it.”

With 7 minutes, 41 seconds remaining in the game and the score tied 1-1, Everett was called for the delay-of-game penalty when referee Shaun Davis judged the Silvertips too slow coming off the bench for a faceoff.

But just as the Tips killed off the penalty, the puck was poked out of the zone right into the path of Armstrong, who was steaming onto the ice after serving the penalty. Armstrong sped up the middle, cut between two defenders, shot the puck on the fly and beat Seattle goalie Bryan Bridges to give the Tips the lead with 5:30 remaining. It was his sixth goal of the season.

“That was an unbelievable goal, an NHL type of goal,” said Constantine, a man who has seen more than his share of NHL goals, having coached at that level.

“I just reached for the puck, poked it out of the zone and it was off to the races,” Armstrong said. “I’ve been watching a lot of NHL video the last couple of nights and I picked up that play from (the Toronto Maple Leafs’) Alexander Mogilny, cutting into the middle there. I just tried it tonight, shot far side, and I played with Bryan Bridges (at Kootenay) last season so I kind of knew what he was going to do and knew where to put it.”

Everett got another quality game in goal from Jeff Harvey, who stopped 23 shots.

Torrie Wheat also scored for the Tips, a pretty pullback goal on the power play in the first period that gave Everett a 1-0 lead, and the Tips performed yeoman’s work on the penalty kill, holding Seattle to 1-for-6 and giving the T-birds few quality chances.

And Everett finally broke the .500 barrier after falling short in its three previous opportunities.

“It was kind of the premise of our pregame chat with the guys,” Constantine said. “We’ve been here three times before and failed, let’s see if we can figure out a way to get ourselves over the hump.”

Chris Durand scored his seventh goal of the season for Seattle (7-13-5-1), tying it up early in the second period.

“Awful,” was how Seattle coach Dean Chynoweth described Seattle’s play.

“I’d like to see an improvement in work ethic in our own building in front of our fans. We were outworked tonight.”

Slap shots: Everett defenseman Cody Thoring, who had his head slammed hard into the boards Friday night against Tri-City and had to be helped from the ice, made a quick recovery. Thoring was a late scratch, but did warm up with the team before the game. … Tips left wing Tyler Dietrich, who was expected to return Friday from two months out with a shoulder injury, was scratched again Saturday because of a cold. … It was mascot night at KeyArena with the mascots participating in hockey games between periods. Along with Seattle’s Cool Bird and Everett’s Lincoln were a host of random costumed characters, including one dressed up like and Idaho potato and another as the Ivar’s clam.

At KeyArena