EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips were desperate for a win.
Friday night it was some unexpected sources that delivered that victory.
Backup goaltender Luke Siemens produced the performance of his life and Josh Birkholz more than doubled his season point total, leading the Tips to a 5-2 victory over the Tri-City Americans at Comcast Arena.
Siemens, making just his third appearance of the season, turned aside a Tri-City siege over the last two periods, making 45 saves to earn his first career WHL victory.
Birkholz, who had just four points in Everett’s first 17 games, had five Friday, polishing off his hat trick with a late empty-net goal.
And Everett, which had lost three straight and 11 of its past 13, put a much-needed notch in the win column.
“It was huge,” Siemens said of the victory. “We’ve been struggling of late, but to get a win at home and get the crowd behind us, I think it’s going to really help us turn this thing around.”
Scott MacDonald also had a breakthrough offensive game, tallying two goals and an assist as Everett (7-7-1-3) finally found some offense. The Tips had scored just 13 goals in their past nine games, and the five goals matched their season high.
Birkholz and MacDonald are two of the players Everett was counting on to provide offense this season, but they had yet to get on track. That changed Friday as that duo was essentially responsible for all of Everett’s scoring.
“It was nice to see some goals go in the net,” Everett associate head coach Jay Varady said. “I think the reason those guys had some individual success is they just skated. We’ve been talking about that for so long in terms of skating and working and sticking with the plan, and they were able to do that. They just kept things simple and they were good.”
Kruise Reddick and and Nils Moser scored for Tri-City (11-6-1-1). Americans goalie Drew Owsley allowed four goals on 15 shots before being yanked during the second period. Chris Dreidger stopped all 11 shots he faced in relief.
Everett raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, holding the Americans without a shot on goal for more than 10 minutes. However, Tri-City stormed back in the second period, outshooting the Tips 20-6, and the Americans continued to pile on the pressure in the third.
However, Siemens was up to the task, and although the pressure kept things tense, the Americans never pulled closer than two goals.
“It was a good effort by our guys tonight,” Varady said. “I thought we had a really good start, then we just kind of battled the rest of the game, including our goaltender. He battled the entire night and I thought our guys did a good job blocking shots and helping come back to protect the area around the net.”
Everett, which has had all kinds of trouble on the power play lately, ended its drought just 2 minutes, 53 seconds into the game. MacDonald received the puck down low and had enough time to make a quick move before firing past Owsley to open the scoring.
That was just the beginning of MacDonald’s first-period exploits. At 13:27 he caused a turnover in the Tri-City zone and fed Birkholz streaking toward goal. Birkholz sped around Owsley to make it 2-0.
Then MacDonald made it 3-0 at 17:00. Birkholz released the Tips on a partial two-on-one, and Clayton Cumiskey threaded a perfect pass for MacDonald to slam in at the far post, staking Everett to a big advantage.
The momentum swung completely Tri-City’s way in the second period as the Americans outshot the Tips 20-6, but somehow Everett escaped still leading by two.
Tri-City got on the board 2:24 into the period, Reddick redirecting a feed from Brooks Macek after the Tips were unable to clear.
The Americans continued to pour forward, but the Tips scored against the run of play at 13:41. Birkholz raced onto a loose puck, had an angle on Tri-City defenseman Zak Stebner, and fired a shot into the top corner, making it 4-1 and sending Owsley to the bench.
But Tri-City continued to control play and the Americans scored again at 15:05. On a rebound off the rush Nils Moser sent the puck goalward from the right circle, and it banked in off Siemens as he was trying to recover.
Both teams had good scoring chances in the third before Birkholz finally iced it with 2:10 remaining.
Slap shots
Everett captain Landon Ferraro did not play in the third period because of an upper-body injury. … The Tips, who have struggled on special teams this season, won the special-teams battle 1-0. … Everett overage center Parker Stanfield missed his third straight game because of a concussion. … Tri-City played its final game without center Brendan Shinnimin. Shinnimin, Tri-City’s leading scorer last season, was serving the final game of a 12-game suspension handed down by the league for a boarding major.
Silvertips 5, Americans 2
Tri-City020—2
Everett311—5
First Period—1, Everett, MacDonald 2 (Birkholz, Murray), 2:53 (pp). 2, Everett, Birkholz 4 (MacDonald), 13:27. 3, Everett, MacDonald 3 (Cumiskey, Birkholz), 17:00. Penalties—Schmidt, Tri-City (interference), 2:09; Yadlowski, Everett (checking from behind), 3:13; Humphries, Tri-City (cross checking), 17:42.
Second Period—4, Tri-City, Reddick 3 (Macek, Hughesman), 2:24. 5, Everett, Birkholz 5, 13:41. 6, Tri-City, Moser 1 (Conrad), 15:05. Penalties—Hughesman, Tri-City (charging-fighting), 5:06; Cumiskey, Everett (fighting), 5:06; Stebner, Tri-City (roughing), 7:00; Ferraro, Everett (roughing), 7:00; Reddick, Tri-City (checking from behind), 18:32.
Third Period—7, Everett, Birkholz 5, 13:41 (en). Penalties—McCrea, Everett (tripping), 7:48.
Shots on goal—Tri-City 12-20-15—47. Everett 10-6-11—27. Power-play opportunities—Tri-City 0 of 2. Everett 1 of 4.
Goalies—Tri-City, Owsley 8-6-0-1 (15 shots, 11 saves), Dreidger (11 shots, 11 saves). Everett, Siemens 1-2-0-0 (47 shots, 45 saves).
A—5,523.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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