EVERETT — Dennis Williams wanted his Everett Silvertips to “hit the reset button” following a season-opening dismantling Saturday at the hands of the Portland Winterhawks.
On Sunday, the Tips did just that.
Patrick Bajkov scored twice and goaltender Dorrin Luding bounced back with a 42-save effort a night after being pulled and the Tips defeated the visiting Tri-City Americans 4-1 in Western Hockey League action Sunday before a crowd of 2,890 at Xfinity Arena.
“I was proud of them, that’s a good hockey club over there that we played,” said Williams, who picked up his first win as a WHL coach. “That’s a good outing for a group coming back the night after a tough (7-4) loss to Portland. All in all, right from Luding out to our six (defensemen) and our 12 forwards, we played a tremendous game with great effort.”
Everett (1-1) doesn’t play at home again until it faces these same Americans (0-2) on Oct. 18.
“Tri is a really skilled, fast team and it builds a lot of confidence going onto the road knowing that with our young group that’s what we’re going to need throughout the year,” Bajkov said. “It’s really important to have the confidence to know we can close every game.”
Matt Fonteyne added a pair of assists for his second-straight multi-point outing to start the season. The Tips held a 52-43 shot advantage. The shot total is three shy of the club record established against Portland in the 2006-07 season.
For the second straight night the Tips took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Unlike Saturday’s opener, Everett kept attacking.
“I thought there in the second we had some really good shifts where we had two, three, four back-to-back and were able to keep them down,” Williams said. “One of the things we want to continue to do is make their ‘D’ turn and make them come the full 200 feet.”
The Silvertips held the Americans scoreless until late in the second period. Everett took consecutive penalties to give Tri-City a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity. Maxwell James took advantage as he tipped a Dylan Coghlan shot past Luding to cut Everett’s lead to 2-1 at 16:19.
That was Tri-City’s only tally. The Tips killed off the rest of Tri-City’s half-dozen man advantages.
“We just wanted to regroup, look forward to the next day and that’s what the guys did,” Luding said. “They were huge. They were blocking shots, they were doing everything for me and making it easy to see pucks. They helped a lot.”
Bajkov restored the two-goal lead at 18:10 when he finished with a backhand past Tri-City goaltender Patrick Dea off the rush thanks to a feed from linemate Fonteyne to make it 3-1.
“Keeping our composure, coming out in the second period and in the third with another two-goal lead was something that we talked about coming on to the ice,” Bajkov said. “Moving on to another day we have to learn from (Saturday) night and execute pretty well tonight.”
Sean Richards provided the final goal goal at 1:35 in the third period when he collected the puck at Tri-City’s blue line and sliced through the defense and roofed a wrister past Dea to make it 4-1.
Riley Sutter scored the first goal at 7:40 as the Tips used a power play to take a 1-0 lead. Bajkov pushed it to 2-0 at 13:04 when he cashed in from the slot on a behind-the-net feed from Fonteyne. Everett finished the game 1-for-5 on the power play after finished 1-for-10 Saturday.
Silvertips 4, Americans 1
Tri-City 0 1 0—1
Everett 2 1 1—4
1st Period—1, Everett, Sutter 2 (Bajkov, Dewar), 7:40 (PP). 2, Everett, Bajkov 1 (Fonteyne), 13:04. Penalties-Coghlan TC (interference), 7:03; Krebs TC (checking from behind), 13:24; Dewar Evt (hooking), 13:28; Coghlan TC (holding), 16:24.
2nd Period—3, Tri-City, James 1 (Coghlan, Yaremko), 16:19 (PP). 4, Everett, Bajkov 2 (Fonteyne, Centazzo), 18:10. Penalties-Fonteyne Evt (misconduct – mouthguard), 4:28; Fuller TC (interference), 5:05; Bruce Evt (holding), 14:31; Onyebuchi Evt (high sticking), 15:05; Coghlan Tc (tripping), 19:12; James TC (slashing, 10-minute misconduct), 19:51; Sutter Evt (tripping), 19:58.
3rd Period—5, Everett, Richards 1 (Christiansen, Wylie), 1:35. Penalties-Onyebuchi Evt (checking to the head), 2:45; Bouchard TC (slashing), 6:48; Butt Evt (interference), 6:48; Fonteyne Evt (holding opp. stick), 11:02; Bruce Evt (interference), 12:52; Topping TC (unsportsmanlike cnd.), 19:21; Onyebuchi Evt (roughing), 19:21; Gatenby TC (major-fighting), 19:43; James TC (charging, 10-minute misconduct), 19:43; Yaremko TC (10-minute misconduct), 19:43; Butt Evt (roughing, 10-minute misconduct), 19:43; Liwiski Evt (major-fighting), 19:43.
Shots on Goal—Tri-City 11-19-13-43. Everett 15-23-14-52.
Power Play Opportunities—Tri-City 1 / 7; Everett 1 / 5.
Goalies—Tri-City, Dea 0-1-0-0 (52 shots-48 saves). Everett, Luding 1-0-0-0 (43 shots-42 saves).
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