The Everett Silvertips are one-third of the way through their biennial East Division road trip and sport a 1-1 record after opening with a narrow 2-1 loss to the defending WHL champion Brandon Wheat Kings followed by a 2-0 win at Moose Jaw.
Friday’s game at Brandon came after a much-needed five-day break following a stretch that saw the Tips (32-12-8-2, 74 points) play seven games in nine games, dropping six of them and seven straight overall before snapping the winless streak with a 1-0 win at home against Vancouver in the final home game before heading east.
“First off we had a lot more energy (in Brandon) than we did after playing seven games in nine nights,” Tips coach Kevin Constantine said by phone Monday from Regina, Saskatchewan, where the Tips will take on the overall WHL-leading Pats tonight at 5 p.m.
“If you look at our team playing its seventh game, there wasn’t a whole lot of energy left, but that energy has been restored the last two games — minus the fact that traveling that distance isn’t the most energizing thing — but the rest we got more than made up for it.”
Everett out-shot the Wheat Kings 35-29, and it took a strong effort from Brandon goalie Logan Thompson to outduel Tips backup Mario Petit in the 2-1 Wheat Kings victory. Everett then outshot Moose Jaw 34-31, including a 15-7 margin in the opening period that produced the only goal the Tips needed.
Also key to Everett’s recent resurgence was the return of veteran defensemen and blue line partners Noah Juulsen and Lucas Skrumeda after extended absences. Juulsen has an assist in both games on the road trip after missing nine games with a lower-body injury.
“That’s a combination of having energy and having a little bit more veteran defensive corps — that helps you get the puck out of your end, and they’re a little bit more experienced at playing defense,” Constantine said. “Carter (Hart) did a great job in net, but we didn’t give up a lot of scoring chances (to Moose Jaw) either.”
Tonight presents an altogether different challenge in a Regina team (40-6-6-1 87 points) that is currently ranked first among all Canadian Hockey League teams.
The high-scoring Pats average a league-best 5.26 goals per game, have won 11 straight games and enter tonight’s game with a 15-point lead over second-place Moose Jaw in the East Division and a six-point lead over (and four games in hand of) Medicine Hat in the overall standings.
Do the Silvertips, who allow a league-low 2.32 goals per game, make any changes when preparing to play a high-scoring team like Regina?
“You might make a couple adjustments based on a team you’re playing, but those are a lot easier when you play a team eight or 10 times like you do in the U.S. Division,” Constantine said. “Eighty-five percent of it is self-related, focused on our strategies and getting our details down, being consistent with what we do. … There is nothing different in our process that we go through just because it’s the best team in the league. That doesn’t change our approach at all.”
Perhaps the only apt comparison was Everett’s 4-3 win over Medicine Hat, the league’s second-highest-scoring team on Dec. 2 at Xfinity Arena. That victory that snapped the Tigers’ 10-game winning streak and, interestingly enough, saw Hart enter the game following three consecutive shutouts.
Hart comes into tonight’s game with two straight shutouts, but the Pats will counter with the league’s top two point producers in Sam Steel (39 goals, 60 assists) and Adam Brooks (31 goals, 63 assists). Steel, a former teammate of Hart’s while growing up in Sherwood Park, Alberta, was a first-round pick and No. 30 overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2016 NHL draft. Brooks was a fourth-round pick of Toronto in last year’s NHL draft.
Regina’s third-leading scorer is none other than former Tips captain Dawson Leedahl, who is having a career year as an overager with 26 goals and 43 assists. Everett dealt Leedahl to the Pats during the summer as part of the deal that yielded forward Sean Richards and a fourth-round bantam pick.
Don’t look for the Silvertips to wax nostalgic at the prospect of seeing their former captain for the only time this season.
“When the game’s over you’ll probably go in the hallway and reminisce before you get on the bus, but when the game’s on, it’s just another player on another team,” Constantine said. “Anyone who has been a Silvertip is part of the family and we wish him all the best — except for that night.”
For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter.
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