Silvertips blow 3-0 lead, fall 4-3 to Kootenay in OT

EVERETT — The manner in which the game winner was scored pretty much summed up the third period and overtime for the Everett Silvertips.

It was a complete and utter train wreck.

A comedy of errors saw Everett throw one away Sunday afternoon as the Tips crashed and burned to a 4-3 overtime loss to the Kootenay Ice at Xfinity Arena.

Everett was in complete control. The Tips scored three times in the second period to take a 3-0 lead against a tired Kootenay team playing its third game in three nights. However, two mistakes let the Ice back into it early in the third. Then the Tips spent the rest of the game playing timid, allowing Kootenay to seize the initiative and eventually find the tying goal.

Then in overtime, Kootenay’s Tyler King was left all alone in front. Everett goaltender Carter Hart made a good toe save to deny King. However, in attempting to cover the puck and freeze play, Hart inadvertently knocked the puck into his own net, handing the Ice an unlikely victory.

It was a disheartening loss for the Tips, and Everett coach Kevin Constantine invoked perhaps the most jarring defeat in franchise history in describing Sunday’s loss. In 2007 Everett entered the playoffs with the best record in the WHL, but in the second round the Tips found themselves tied 2-2 in a series against Prince George. In Game 5 in Everett the Tips raced to a 3-0 lead through two periods. However, the Cougars scored four times in the third to win 4-3, then blew out Everett 8-2 in Game 6 to finish the Tips off. Everett hasn’t won a playoff series since.

Sunday’s loss gave off a similar odor, and it continued a worrying trend for the Tips, who have made an unhealthy habit of playing passively with leads in the third period and allowing opponents back into games.

“It’s happened repeatedly — against Spokane (on Nov. 8) we had a 4-2 lead and lost that game 6-4, it happened tonight, we gave up a lead against Kamloops (on Wednesday),” Constantine lamented. “Our team has an amazing ability to shut down. If you look at how we might finish a first period and then how we’ll play in the second period, we can be two totally different teams real quick. I’ve said to our guys all year that they need to gain the mental toughness where you play your style of game.”

It seemed the return of leading scorer Nikita Scherbak to the lineup had sparked the Tips back on track following Friday’s 3-2 home loss to Seattle. Scherbak, who returned after missing two games as a result of the thigh bruise that required him to be taken off the ice on a stretcher eight days earlier, had a goal and an assist as Everett took control in the second period.

But things quickly unraveled for the Tips in the third. First, 1 minute, 35 seconds into the period, Everett defenseman Cole MacDonald made the ill-advised decision to try to skate the puck out from behind his own net with Kootenay’s Jaedon Descheneau draped all over him. Descheneau picked MacDonald’s pocket, then quickly dropped a pass for Tim Bozon to put away at the far post to get the Ice on the board.

Then at 5:32 MacDonald put the puck into the stands from the defensive zone for a delay-of-game penalty, and the Ice converted just eight seconds later, Rinat Valiev putting a slap shot through traffic and past Hart to make it a brand new game.

Everett responded by going into a shell, and the Ice gratefully accepted the opening. Kootenay inevitably tied the score at 13:52 as Tanner Faith’s slap shot from the point deflected off traffic and past Hart to tie it at 3-3.

“We’re amazing at the swings between the two (levels of play),” Constantine said. “We have to learn from that. We have to process that. We have to stay on edge, or stay focused, or stay determined, or whatever words you want to attach. That’s a mental skill that our guys at this point don’t have. They don’t have the mental skill to compete 60 minutes. That’s an individual skill and it’s a collective skill among the players.”

Finally in OT, Bozon managed to shield two Tips away from the puck along the boards, then send the feed out front to King that resulted in the game winner. Kootenay outshot Everett 16-3 in the third period and overtime.

Wyatt Hoflin made 19 saves in goal for Kootenay (13-15-0-0), which is 9-2 since star center Sam Reinhart was returned to the team by the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.

“This team is playing with a lot of confidence because we have guys in the right spots,” Kootenay coach Ryan McGill said. “I think at the beginning of the year when we didn’t have Reinhart and Bozon we were relying way too much on (Luke) Philp and Descheneau, and we had other guys in areas they weren’t ready for. Right now we have everybody in the right spots.”

Patrick Bajkov and Carson Stadnyk scored the other goals for Everett (16-5-3-1). Hart finished with 26 saves.

Slap shots

Scherbak wasn’t the only player back in the lineup for Everett on Sunday. Center Remi Laurencelle, who missed nine games because of a sprained ankle, also made his return. … The Tips gave another game to 15-year-old call-up winger Bryce Kindopp. Kindopp, a native of Lloydminster, Alberta, who was a third-round pick in this year’s bantam draft, was brought in this weekend to help cover for injuries. He made his WHL debut in Friday’s 3-2 home loss to Seattle, and he maintained his spot in the lineup Sunday despite the returns of Scherbak and Laurencelle.

Ice 4, Silvertips 3 (OT)

Kootenay 0 0 3 1 — 4

Everett 0 3 0 0 — 3

First Period—no goals. Penalties—Faith, Kootenay (tripping), 19:46.

Second Period—1, Everett, Scherbak 12 (Juulsen, Betker), 6:42. 2, Everett, Bajkov 9 (Bauml, Scherbak), 10:33. 3, Everett, Stadnyk 11 (Low, Skrumeda), 14:40. Penalties—Millar, Everett (high sticking), 18:56.

Third Period—4, Kootenay, Bozon 9 (Descheneau), 1:35. 5, Kootenay, Valiev 4 (Philp), 5:40 (pp). 6, Kootenay, Faith 1 (Alfaro), 13:52. Penalties—MacDonald, Everett (delay of game), 5:32.

Overtime—7, Kootenay, King 2 (Bozon), 3:08. Penalties—none.

Shots on goal—Kootenay 6-8-12-4—30. Everett 9-10-3-0—22. Power-play opportunities—Kootenay 1 of 2. Everett 0 of 1.

Goalies—Kootenay, Hoflin 13-12-0-0 (22 shots, 19 saves). Everett, Hart 4-1-2-0 (30 shots, 26 saves).

A—3,212.

Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.