KENT — Carter Hart was facing as intimidating a situation as there is for a WHL goaltender.
The Everett Silvertips were clinging to a one-goal lead when Seattle Thunderbirds star Mathew Barzal, the first-overall pick in the 2012 bantam draft, bore down on Hart with a free run at goal. It’s a nightmare for any Western Hockey League goalie, let alone a 16-year-old rookie getting the start on opening night.
Yet Hart calmly ushered Barzal aside, just like he did everything else Saturday night.
Hart shut the door on Seattle, posting a 26-save shutout to backstop the Tips to a season-opening 1-0 victory over the T-birds at ShoWare Center.
“I just shrugged it off, it’s just another save,” was Hart’s unflappable response to turning aside Barzal’s breakaway chance.
“(The win) feels incredible,” Hart added. “The boys played great tonight, they played incredible in our defensive zone and played great throughout the game.”
Hart is an unusually experienced goaltender for a 16-year-old rookie. Last season he became the first 15-year-old to receive a start for the Tips when he took the net for a game at Spokane in February. Then he was the goalie in net at the very end of the season, when Everett was a shootout-win away at Portland in its season finale from having home-ice advantage over Seattle in the first round of the playoffs.
Nevertheless, Saturday was a pressure situation for the Sherwood Park, Alberta, native. Hart didn’t even find out he was starting until Saturday morning as both he and fellow rookie Nik Amundrud were in contention to get the nod, with No. 1 netiminder Austin Lotz still away at training camp with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. However, Hart was completely unfazed by the moment as he earned his first career WHL win.
“The nerves were still there, but I sort of thought back to last year,” Hart said. “I was pretty nervous going into Portland and Spokane, but really it was just another game. All I have to do is stop the puck and give the team a chance to win every night. Tonight I felt pretty good, I felt like I saw the puck the whole way into my body.”
Said Everett coach Kevin Constantine: “We saw it (from Hart) last year a little bit in a couple games. We saw it in preseason when he played a steady 90 minutes, and we saw it now. I think he’s an athletic goalie who knows the position, and he’s relatively poised and calm. Those are the things he so far seems pretty good at.”
Everett newcomer Graham Millar, an offseason acquisition from Saskatoon, scored the game’s only goal less than two minutes into the contest, then the Tips rode Hart the rest of the way as Seattle created the better scoring chances — the T-birds outshot Everett 26-19 with Barzal being a constant threat every time he was on the ice — and won the physical battle.
“I thought we started really well — I liked the first 15 minutes — and then I liked the goaltending because after that we weren’t very good,” Constantine said. “We gave up some breakaways. The goalie played well, and we got a couple helps from the crossbar.”
Taran Kozun took the loss in goal for Seattle, finishing with 18 saves. The T-birds, who played the previous night in Portland, dropped to 1-1-0-0.
The biggest question heading into the season for Everett was whether the team would be able to score goals, but the Tips needed less than two minutes to get their first. Millar tipped Noah Juulsen’s shot from the left point past Kozun to stake Everett to a 1-0 lead just 1:53 into the contest. Little did the Tips realize that would be their only tally of the night.
Seattle had chances to tie it late in the period, but Sam McKechnie shot high when free on goal, and Hart made several good saves during a strong T-birds shift to maintain Everett’s advantage heading into the second.
The second again saw Seattle dominate late in the period, but Hart was again up to the task, He denied Barzal on the breakaway and saw Scott Eansor put a short-handed breakaway chance off the crossbar. The Tips were literally saved by the horn as a Barzal-led two-on-one was denied by the period ending, and Everett escaped to the third still leading 1-0.
The third period saw scoring chance few and far between, though Hart had to make a couple good stops in close during one sequence with six minutes remaining. Everett’s skaters then did a good job blocking shots in the closing moments as Seattle pulled Kozun for an extra attacker, and the Tips held on to start off the season in victorious fashion.
Slap shots
Both teams were missing two players because of NHL training camps, those being Lotz and defenseman Ben Betker (Edmonton) for Everett, while Seattle was without defensemen Shea Theodore (Anaheim) and Evan Wardley (Montreal). … Seattle was also without its captain, overage winger Justin Hickman, who is out with an upper-body injury. … Everett had just one player making his WHL debut, that being defenseman Lucas Skrumeda. Skrumeda spent several weeks with the Tips at the start of last season, but never got into a game.
Silvertips 1, Thunderbirds 0
Everett 1 0 0 — 1
Seattle 0 0 0 — 0
First Period—1, Everett, Millar 1 (Juulsen, Bajkov), 1:53. Penalties—Millar, Everett (tripping), 7:34; Neuls, Seattle (slashing), 11:37.
Second Period—no goals. Penalties—Sandhu, Everett (roughing), 7:25; Neils, Seattle (interference-roughing), 7:25; Juulsen, Everett (holding), 10:25; Kolesar, Seattle (playing without helmet), 4:35; Low, Everett (holding), 16:56; Leedahl, Everett (fighting), 17:53; Kolesar, Seattle (fighting), 17:53.
Third Period—no goals. Penalties—True, Seattle (tripping), 3:00; Gropp, Seattle (roughing), 14:46.
Shots on goal—Everett 11-6-2—19. Seattle 11-9-6—26. Power-play opportunities—Everett 0 of 5. Seattle 0 of 3.
Goalies—Everett, Hart 1-0-0-0 (26 shots, 26 saves). Seattle, Kozun 1-1-0-0 (19 shots, 18 saves).
A—5,342.
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