EVERETT — It’s all in the Everett Silvertips’ hands once again.
In one last twist to a six-month race, the WHL’s U.S. Division title and the top seed in the Western Conference will go down to the final day of the season after the Tips defeated the Chilliwack Bruins 5-0 Saturday night.
Everett’s victory, combined with Tri-City’s 5-4 loss to Spokane, means the Tips and Americans are once more tied for first. Everett has one game remaining tonight at Spokane, while Tri-City’s season is over. That means the Tips need just a point from tonight’s game to hang their fourth U.S. Division championship banner in seven seasons.
“I guess this is what we wanted,” Tips winger Shane Harper said. “We’re close to doing it. We tried not to think too much about it down the stretch and have it take away from our game, but this is what we were playing for, to have a chance at first.”
Before the second sellout crowd at Comcast Arena in two nights, Everett’s overage trio of Harper, Chris Langkow and Zack Dailey led the way as the Tips (46-20-3-2) skated to an emphatic victory. Harper had two goals and an assist, Langkow had a goal and three assists and Dailey had a goal and an assist as they played their final regular season game at Comcast.
“This was nice,” Harper said. “It’ll definitely be sad to leave this team, it’s been the best five years of my life. I’m definitely glad we were able to have a good game tonight.”
Harper’s two goals gave him 100 in his Silvertips career, which is a franchise record.
Goaltender Thomas Heemskerk pulled off some stunners among his 25 saves for his fourth shutout of the season.
Everett took advantage of Chilliwack penalties to build an early lead. The Tips received eight of the game’s first nine power plays and led 2-0 going into the third period.
Chilliwack then received all four power plays in the third, but it was the Tips who scored the goals.
Braden Gamble made 34 saves in goal for Chilliwack (32-33-2-5), which fell back into eighth place in the Western Conference. The team that finishes first draws the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.
The Tips still need to get something out of today’s game at Spokane to earn that top seed. Spokane is already locked into the No. 4 seed and has nothing to gain or lose from tonight’s result.
And who could have envisioned this scenario in December, when the Tips were languishing in sixth place in the conference and casting glances at teams behind them in the race just to get into the playoffs.
“We were talking about that,” Harper said. “If anyone had come up to us in December and said we’d have a chance with one game left with a chance at first place, we gladly would have taken it. We definitely worked hard to get there, and it’s paid off.”
Chilliwack played an undisciplined first period, and the Tips took advantage by scoring a pair of tic-tac-toe goals on the power play to take a 2-0 lead. The first came 6 minutes, 16 seconds into the game, Langkow and Dailey combining to set up Harper for an open shot from the left slot. The second came at 16:09, Langkow one-touching a pass from the corner out front for Dailey to put away.
The Bruins continued taking penalties in the second period, including giving Everett a lengthy five-on-three. However, this time the Tips were unable to cash in, mainly because of Gamble. Gamble made huge scrambling save on Langkow at point blank, then denied Markus McCrea on a sterling glove stop, and it remained 2-0 going into the third.
In the first half of the third period the Tips decided to give some of those penalties back, handing Chilliwack a pair of five-on-threes. But Everett’s penalty kill stood strong, and in between penalties the Tips kept scoring.
Silvertips 5, Bruins 0
Chilliwack000—0
Everett203—5
First Period—1, Everett, Harper 41 (Dailey, Langkow), 6:16 (pp). 2, Everett, Dailey 10 (Langkow, Gudas), 16:09 (pp). Penalties—Horak, Chilliwack (hooking), 3:26; Neigum, Chilliwack (tripping), 5:56; Rissanen, Everett (roughing), 7:04; Habscheid, Chilliwack (checking from behind), 15:42; Horak, Chilliwack (tripping), 18:57; Neigum, Chilliwack (fighting), 19:52; Tochkin, Everett (fighting), 19:52.
Second Period—no goals. Penalties—Wiklund, Chilliwack (interference), 2:53; Craige, Chilliwack (tripping), 5:46; Einhorn, Chilliwack (tripping), 6:21; Horak, Chilliwack (checking from behind), 13:01.
Third Period—3, Everett, Langkow 21 (Harper), 0:09. 4, Everett, Froese 29, 6:07. 5, Everett, Harper 42 (Langkow), 11:45. Penalties—Gudas, Everett (interference), 0:48; MacDonald, Everett (hooking), 1:16; Dailey, Everett (checking from behind), 2:57; Persley, Chilliwack (roughing), 6:57; Gudas, Everett (roughing), 6:57; Elynuik, Everett (roughing), 6:57.
Shots on goal—Chilliwack 8-7-10—25. Everett 16-17-6—39. Power-play opportunities—Chilliwack 0 of 5. Everett 2 of 8.
Goalies—Chilliwack, Gamble 6-7-0-1 (39 shots, 34 saves). Everett, Heemskerk 23-11-2-2 (25 shots, 25 saves).
A—8,426.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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