EVERETT – All of the Everett Silvertips’ pent up frustration, which built to a fever pitch the previous two nights, was unleashed in a furious outburst early Sunday night, and the Brandon Wheat Kings were the unfortunate victims.
Everett scored a franchise-record four goals in the first period, and the Silvertips cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Wheat Kings in a Western Hockey League contest before a crowd of 6,027 at the Everett Events Center.
Riley Armstrong scored twice and Tyler Dietrich added a goal and two assists for the Silvertips (27-21-8-2), who managed to recover from disappointing results against their U.S. Division rivals, tying Portland on Friday and losing to Tri-City on Saturday.
“For sure,” Dietrich said about whether the Silvertips were able to vent some of their frustration Sunday. “All weekend the chances have been there and it was definitely a disappointment to only come out of this weekend .500. But it was little things and with this type of hockey, you can’t make little mistakes like we were making Friday and Saturday because teams will turn around and bite you. I think tonight we just had that game face on and came out ready to play and had a hell of a start, which was exactly what we needed.”
Against both Portland and Tri-City, Everett dug itself a two-goal hole and spent the rest of the game trying to climb back out of that hole. That wasn’t a problem Sunday as the Tips scored goals 15 seconds apart just five minutes into the game, then scored twice in 44 seconds late in the first period.
“That was an unusual start, unfortunately,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said with a smirk. “I wish it were more common. We’ve had a couple like that this year, but more often than not, as evidenced by the fact that we’ve scored first in only 25 of our 58 games, we don’t start that great. So it’s important, and tonight was one of our better starts. The biggest reason we won was how well we started.”
That start began 4 minutes, 58 seconds into the game. The Silvertips were on the power play when Armstrong circled from left to the right, waiting for a shooting opportunity. When it came, he wristed a shot clean through traffic and past Brandon goalie Mike Nichol to give the Tips the lead.
Everett then doubled its lead straight from the ensuing faceoff. After winning the faceoff the Tips dumped the puck into the right corner, where Torrie Wheat got the puck and fed Jeff Schmidt in front for a stuff goal at 5:13.
The Silvertips then took command with two more goals late in the first. Intricate close passing between Curtis Billsten and Dietrich set up Armstrong for his second of the game at 18:34. Finally, a poor clearance gave the puck to John Dahl in the center slot. Dahl lined up his shot and rifled it into the upper corner to make it 4-0 at 19:18. Everett had never scored more than three goals in a period.
Wheat later added a shorthanded goal in the second period and Dietrich scored in the third for Everett. Michael Wall made 30 saves to earn the win in goal.
Armstrong said Everett’s strong start was due to Brandon’s unfamiliarity with the Silvertips – the game was the only meeting of the season between the two teams.
“I think that when we play teams that we’ve never played, like when Prince Albert came and Saskatoon came, those teams only see us once and they don’t know what we do, what our strengths are, how we forecheck, how we play defensively,” Armstrong said. “So they just can’t read us and we can do what we do.”
Brandon (21-29-8-3) received a power-play goal from Eric Fehr in the second period and a goal from Richard Javosky in the third. The Wheat Kings, playing their fifth game in six days during their U.S. Division road swing, finished 0-3-2 on the trip.
“You would have thought (we would be tired), but I didn’t mind our energy,” Brandon coach Mike Kelly said. “I thought our legs were pretty good. I thought mentally it may have cost us. We made a few unforced errors that cost us, four that directly related to goals.”
Slap shots: Everett saw its 10-game streak of not allowing a power-play goal come to an end when Fehr scored late in the second period. …
Fifteen-year-old goalie Leland Irving made his WHL debut for Everett on Sunday. Irving, a native of Swan Hills, Alberta, and Everett’s fifth-round pick in the 2003 Bantam Draft, entered the game with 7:13 remaining and was forced into a reaction save just four second in. He saved all five shots he faced. … Everett No. 1 goalie Jeff Harvey was scratched for the third straight game with a muscle cramp in his hip he picked up Tuesday against Moose Jaw. He’s listed as day-to-day. … The Wheat Kings decided to rest goalie Josh Harding, the WHL’s reigning Most Valuable Player. Harding, who the Silvertips beat 2-1 earlier in the season when he played for Regina, had started four games in the previous five days. … The Wheat Kings’ defense, already depleted by injuries to Ole-Kristian Tollefson and Steven Later, suffered another blow to its defensive corps when key point man Reagan Leslie was knocked out of the game in the second period after taking a shot from Ivan Baranka off his right foot. … Everett has feasted upon East Division foes this season, going 4-0-1.
At Everett
First Period-1, Everett, Armstrong 13 (Dahl, Dietrich), 4:58. 2, Everett, Schmidt 7 (Wheat, Nathe), 5:13. 3, Everett, Armstrong 14 (Dietrich, Billsten), 18:34. 4, Everett, Dahl 23 (Desloges), 19:18. Second Period-5, Everett, Wheat 7, 10:17 (sh). 6, Brandon, Fehr 42 (Dyck), 16:48 (pp). Third Period-7, Brandon, Jasovsky 6 (Christensen), 1:53. 8, Everett, Dietrich 3 (Love), 8:00. Shots on goal-Brandon 9-13-15-37. Everett 16-8-9-33. Power-play opportunities-Brandon 1 of 4. Everett 1 of 4. Goalies-Brandon, Nichol 7-5-1 (33 shots, 27 saves). Everett, Wall 8-8-3 (32 shots, 30 saves), Irving (5 shots, 5 saves). |
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