EVERETT – Haven’t we all seen this particular script before?

The Everett Silvertips hope this one finishes with the same happy ending.

The Silvertips returned home on Thursday in exactly the same situation they were in two weeks earlier, tied after four games of a best-of-seven playoff series.

Everett’s second-round series against the Prince George Cougars is knotted at 2-2 going into Saturday’s Game 5 at the Everett Events Center, the series boiling down to a best-of-three.

And the route to this point followed an eerily similar path to the one Everett took in its first-round series against the Spokane Chiefs.

Against Spokane Everett won the first two games at home to take a 2-0 lead – the second victory coming in overtime – before going on the road and losing two straight to the Chiefs.

In the current series against Prince George, Everett again won the first two games at home to go up 2-0 – the second victory again coming in OT – before dropping two straight on the road.

“To say it hasn’t been (like the first round) would be inaccurate because we won two at home, then lost two in Spokane, and it’s the same thing here,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “That’s for you to write a nice story about, but it doesn’t mean that much to us.”

And perhaps it shouldn’t, because while the similarities are uncanny on the surface, a deeper look reveals a more challenging situation this time around for Everett.

The main reason for that is star power. In the opening round, Spokane’s star forward and first-round NHL draft pick Michael Grabner was completely neutralized, registering just one assist in the six games. However, Prince George’s star forward and first-round NHL draft pick Devin Setoguchi has been unstoppable, with three goals and four assists in four games.

“I don’t think we’re really comparing it to Spokane by any means,” Everett right wing Moises Gutierrez said. “When we lost in Spokane those two games I don’t think we put up a real good effort. (In Wednesday’s Game 4) we played well five-on-five, but hats off to them, they found ways to score goals.”

Everett’s next task is to make sure history repeats itself. In the first round the Tips returned home for a convincing 5-1 victory over the Chiefs to take a 3-2 series lead, then closed it out with a 4-1 victory at Spokane.

It remains to be seen whether Everett can produce the sequel.

Home sweet home, part one: The Cougars showed exactly what home-ice advantage is all about in Game 4, and that doesn’t refer to the crowd.

Prince George took advantage of a quirk of the CN Center rink to give the Tips fits throughout the game, and won 4-3 in overtime by the Cougars.

The boards behind the goals in Prince George are hard and lend themselves to hard rebounds, with the puck often rocketing back just as fast as it came in. The Cougars deliberately took advantage of that fact, constantly putting shots wide on the near side in an attempt to make the puck rebound off the back boards out in front of the goal. It was on exactly that play that Setoguchi scored Prince George’s opening goal.

“We didn’t want to tip our hand too early in the series,” Schoneck said about the play. “But it was something we worked on. They started keying on it at the end and allowed us to get some shots through. I’m not sure about the bounces down there, and we’ve got to be aware of them doing it to us.”

Home sweet home, part two: While Prince George may have grabbed momentum in the series, the Cougars still need to find a way to win a game in Everett if they want to prevail in the series. The Tips were strong at home all season long, going 31-4-0-1, and Everett is a perfect 5-0 at home in the playoffs.

Prince George was actually responsible for one of Everett’s four regulation home losses during the regular season. But that game came after the Tips had already clinched the best record in the league, and Everett fielded a lineup that included six players who haven’t seen a minute during the playoffs.

“It’s going to take the same effort,” Prince George coach Drew Schoneck said about getting a win on the road. “We have to be ready for their first 10 minutes. They’re going to come out storming and I think we have to be ready for that. I think we can skate with them, we just have to make sure we’re ready to do it right from the start.”