Silvertips fall 3-2 to Chiefs in overtime

EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips won’t be hanging another U.S. Division banner this season — the Seattle Thunderbirds made sure of that on Tuesday.

And, while the Tips are locked into the second seed coming out of the division, the Spokane Chiefs are still fighting both to fend off Tri-City for the No. 8 seed and hoping catch the Portland Winterhawks for the No. 7 seed.

Spokane’s Hudson Elynuik collected a bouncing puck along the left boards and skated in before firing a wrister past Mario Petit for the game-winning goal at 2:28 in overtime as the Chiefs defeated the Silvertips 3-2 before 3,607 fans Wednesday night at Xfinity Arena.

“There is right and wrong and pride, so it’s not hard for me to go to an athletic event and compete,” Everett head coach Kevin Constantine said. “I understand that standings-wise we didn’t have anything to play for tonight. I understand that, but it’s an athletic event. You always compete.”

Everett (38-24-5-3, 84 points) had its fate sealed Tuesday when the Chiefs fell 4-1 to the T-Birds at ShoWare Center. The Tips won the season series handily over Seattle with a 6-2-1-1 mark and led the division for a month and a half following the December holiday break.

Yet the Thunderbirds’ 11-games-and-counting winning streak propelled them to the top of the division two weeks ago and they never relinquished the spot.

“That’s been our goal all year long,” Everett defenseman Cole MacDonald said. “It kind of sucks that we didn’t get it, but we just needed to forget about it and get these last three wins. Tonight we struggled a bit and didn’t play to our potential.”

With the victory, Spokane (32-29-5-4, 73 points) moves into a points tie with idle Portland though the Winterhawks have a game in hand and two more victories. Those two teams square off for the final time on Friday.

On Wednesday the Chiefs never trailed, but they did surrender the tying goal twice.

Spokane took a 2-1 after the first period and it remained that margin until Everett’s Matt Fonteyne took a cross-ice pass from Patrick Bajkov at the left circle and fired a wrister past Spokane goalie Lasse Petersen on the power play to tie the game 2-2 at 14:15 in the third period.

It was the only man advantage the Tips converted in four opportunities.

“The power play works when you play hard,” Constantine said. “We woke up a little bit at the end of the game and that’s why the power play worked. Everything works when you play hard and nothing works when you don’t.”

The Tips had a good look with less than four minutes play when Lucas Skrumeda’s point shot deflected off Petersen and trickled by the far post. Carson Stadnyk collected the puck behind the net and tried for the go-ahead wraparound, but Petersen managed to get his left pad in front and kept the game tied.

“We have a lot of respect for their organization and their kids,” Spokane coach Don Nachbaur said. “They played really hard tonight. I know they can’t move up in the standings and they’re settled in, but they gave us a fight.”

Spokane took the opening lead after Bajkov was assessed a penalty less than two minutes into the game. While the Tip technically killed the penalty, Markson Bechtold managed to deflect in Tyson Helgesen’s point shot before Bajkov could skate into the play after the penalty expired with 3:13 to go.

Devon Skoleski tied it 1-1 at 4:15 when he tipped in MacDonald’s point shot, but the Chiefs regained the 2-1 lead at 7:06 when Matt Sozanski’s shot from the point snaked through traffic and past Petit.

Petit started in place of Carter Hart, who was scratched and is officially day-to-day with an undisclosed lower body injury.

Everett concludes the season with a home-and-home series with B.C. Division champion Victoria this weekend.

Chiefs 3, Silvertips 2 (OT)

Spokane 2 0 0 1 — 3

Everett 1 0 1 0 — 2

1st Period—1, Spokane, Bechtold 16 (Helgesen, Kopeck), 3:13. 2, Everett, Skoleski 8 (MacDonald, Ralph), 4:15. 3, Spokane, Sozanski 2 (Zwerger), 7:06. Penalties—Bajkov Evt (slashing), 1:09; Zwerger Spo (hooking), 16:21; Ka. Yamamoto Spo (slashing), 18:48.

2nd Period—No Scoring. Penalties—Kopeck Spo (tripping), 5:43; Ke. Yamamoto Spo (major-fighting), 14:36; Laurencelle Evt (major-fighting), 14:36.

3rd Period—4, Everett, Fonteyne 16 (Bajkov, MacDonald), 14:45 (PP). Penalties—Ka. Yamamoto Spo (slashing), 5:33; Skoleski Evt (slashing), 5:33; Davis Evt (high sticking), 5:50; Fram Spo (hooking), 12:57.

OT Period—5, Spokane, Elynuik 18 (Cardiff), 2:28. Penalties—No Penalties

Shots on Goal—Spokane 8-10-6-1-25. Everett 4-10-5-1-20.

Power Play Opportunities—Spokane 0 / 2; Everett 1 / 4.

Goalies—Spokane, Petersen 11-6-1-0 (20 shots-18 saves). Everett, Petit 3-1-4-0 (25 shots-22 saves).

A—3,607

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