Silvertips bounce back with win against Vancouver

Published 12:20 am Sunday, January 18, 2026

EVERETT — After getting shut out 4-0 by the Spokane Chiefs on home ice on Friday, the Everett Silvertips looked to bounce back entering their Saturday matchup against the Vancouver Giants.

They wasted no time doing so, opening the scoring just two minutes into the game and potting three goals in the first 4:17 en route to a 4-1 win at Angel of the Winds Arena. Everett outshot Vancouver 20-9 in the first period before play started to level out a bit more in the final two, but the home side held on.

“We got off to a great start, which I thought was a great response to last night.” Silvertips coach Steve Hamilton said. “Good Vancouver push back in the second. I thought we had to kind of calm the waters a little bit, and pretty solid third. We got to win hockey games in different ways over the course of a year, and tonight for us wasn’t necessarily flowing super smoothly after the hot start, but we got it done.”

No Silvertips players were made available for the media after the game.

Nolan Chastko gave Everett a 1-0 lead at 2:00 of the first period, retrieving the puck off the faceoff and flinging it on net past Giants goalie Kelton Pyne.

It marked the 20-year-old’s first goal since shifting back to his natural center position on Jan. 10. Initially filling in for a couple injured defensemen when he first suited up as a defenseman on Oct. 26, Chastko wound up playing well enough to hold down a spot in the top four for 25 games, where he scored four goals and 13 points with a plus-12 rating despite never playing the position at a serious level before.

After Everett shored up its blue line with acquisitions of Luke Vlooswyk and Kayd Ruedig prior to the WHL trade deadline, Chastko was able to shift back to his regular position.

“Every game, I feel a little bit more comfortable,” Chastko said on Dec. 6. “I got to give props to (defenseman Brek) Liske back there, he helps me out a ton and makes it a lot easier.”

Added Silvertips captain Tarin Smith during a team-hosted interview on Tuesday: “I don’t know how he did it. People do not understand how impressive that was. For him to be able to come back there, and never play the position and do it at the caliber he did, and play the amount of minutes he did, so it was so much fun working with him.

Shortly after Chastko grabbed the lead for the Silvertips, they received a power play after Vancouver’s Jaxson Pawlenchuk committed a roughing penalty on top of matching minors for his teammate Kaden Hayes as well as Vlooswyk. Everett quickly took advantage, as Zackary Shantz finished off a passing sequence to make it 2-0 from the high slot at 2:36.

There was plenty of physicality after the whistles in the ensuing minutes as the Giants tried to find a spark, but the Silvertips buried them even deeper when Lukas Kaplan scored on a rebound in the slot at 4:17. Everett scored three goals on its first nine shots, which prompted Vancouver coach Parker Burgess to replace Pyne with Burke Hood in the crease.

The Giants got on the board when Sam Charko managed to pop the puck up and in under the crossbar from behind the net at 9:24 of the first period, and after mustering just nine shots total in the opening frame, Vancouver started the first 9:21 of the second with an 8-3 shots advantage.

The Giants had a bigger opportunity to cut at the deficit when Rylan Gould and Smith committed penalties just 34 seconds apart, handing the visitors 1:26 of a 5-on-3 power play at 11:19 of the second period. Silvertips goalie Anders Miller made a few saves before Chastko laid out for a block as the first penalty ended, setting up Gould for a short-handed breakaway that he couldn’t convert. Everett managed to kill off the rest of Smith’s penalty to escape unscathed.

According to Hamilton, the team went over some 5-on-3 game clips with assistant coach Mike Field before the game, which ultimately served as a valuable refresher.

“We had a decent idea of what to expect,” Hamilton said. “And again, your goaltender’s got to be your best killer, and (Miller) was huge for us in those situations, which if you can escape those lengthy 5-on-3’s, it can change the course of the game, for sure.”

The kill charged up the Silvertips, who managed to push play back into Vancouver’s zone down the stretch of the middle period, but they couldn’t add to their lead.

The third period started out disjointed for both sides, with sloppy passes and turnovers preventing any sustained offensive zone presence, but once the teams settled back in, Everett allowed just six shots on goal and held off the Giants until Carter Bear tacked on the final goal at 15:02, scoring from the inside edge of the left circle after Matias Vanhanen sparked a rush by forcing a turnover at Vancouver’s blue line.

“I thought it was a pretty steady third period,” Hamilton said. “I thought we were much more composed. Our breakouts were a little bit cleaner, so we didn’t spend as much time in the (defensive) zone, but yeah, I wouldn’t say it was a Picasso tonight, but we got the job done, for sure.”

The Silvertips have opened 2026 with five wins in six games, and they will look to build on that with another three-game home slate in the upcoming week.