Silvertips fall to Winterhawks 7-4 in season opener

EVERETT — The Portland Winterhawks were a preseason pick by many to win the Western Hockey League’s U.S. Division and expected to potentially contend for the conference and league titles.

The Winterhawks looked every bit the division favorite Saturday as they spoiled Opening Night for the Everett Silvertips with a 7-4 victory before 5,873 fans at Xfinity Arena.

Kieffer Bellows scored twice and Cody Glass had a goal and two assists for Portland (1-0). Alex Overhardt had a goal and an assist, while Ilijah Colina and Brad Ginnell each had two assists.

The loss spoiled a two-goal effort by Silvertips co-captain Matt Fonteyne as Everett slipped to 0-1.

“You always want to get off to a good start especially to start the season,” Fonteyne said. “I thought we did a good job building off the crowd and then we kind of let off a little bit – quite a bit in the second, actually. We just need to take advantage of the momentum shifters. We had quite a few chances we didn’t capitalize on, so that kind of hurt us.”

The Silvertips didn’t help themselves as they finished 1-for-10 on the power play. Riley Sutter finally broke the skid when he tapped in a pass from Sean Richards at the right post at 15:20 in the third to make it 7-4.

“Goal scorers want the puck on their stick and they want to get it off their stick as fast as they can,” head coach Dennis Williams said. “We did a nice job passing around the outside, but again we have to have guys that want to take pucks to the net, to get to those tough areas.”

Two-time defending WHL Goaltender of the Year Carter Hart skated onto the ice during Everett’s pre-game introductions, but did not dress for the game due to illness. He’s officially day-to-day. That meant Saturday’s starting duties fell to Dorrin Luding.

Leading 2-0, Everett killed a penalty to open the second period.

Things changed in a hurry.

The Winterhawks scored six straight times, chasing Luding in the process. Bellows, the former Boston University skater who was selected 19th overall by the Islanders in the 2016 NHL draft, opened and closed the onslaught with a pair of goals.

“It was a snowball effect pretty quickly,” Williams said. “They came out hard and fast, and I thought we did a good job killing off that penalty coming back and our focus was ‘Let’s kill that off and let’s build off it.’ We knew they would come out shooting the puck more… (and) that’s exactly what they did.”

Bellows began the scoring at 2:43 by tipping in a Glass wrister from the slot. Conor MacEachern tied it at 3:36 when he potted a behind-the-net feed from Colina. Skyler McKenzie gave the Winterhawks the 3-2 lead after a video review of a goal that was initially waved off due to the net coming off its moorings.

Joachim Blichfeld roofed a tough-angle shot off the rush to make it 4-2, sending Luding to bench for backup Danton Belluk at 8:52. An Overhardt backhander and a Bellows wrister from the left circle pushed the lead to 6-2 at 18:20.

“We got a little complacent up front – all around we got complacent,” Fonteyne said. “It’s a long season. We just need to work on not getting too high and not getting too low after a goal is scored or a goal against.”

Fonteyne’s second goal of the night off a Patrick Bajkov rebound cut the deficit to 6-3 with 35 seconds to play in the second.

Glass answered by roofing a wrister past Belluk at 2:05 in the third to stretch the lead to 7-3. Sutter’s late power-play goal provided the final tally.

“When you get down in a game everyone becomes individuals and want to play their own game because they panic,” Williams said. “We started getting careless turnovers because I think we were pressing too much and trying to make these nice plays coming through all the time. I didn’t think we did a really good job of managing pucks and against a team like that with those two lines up front, if you don’t manage pucks smartly it can come back pretty quick you. And their ‘D’ joins the rush with the best of them.”

The Tips struck first at 4:35 in the opening period. Bajkov chipped the puck into the zone, Connor Dewar won the footrace to the puck and passed it across the crease to the trailing Fonteyne. The overager tapped it past Cole Kehler for the 1-0 advantage.

Montana Onyebuchi set up the second goal when he played the puck from the right boards to Bryce Kindopp in the slot. Kehler saved Kindopp’s initial shot, but Reece Vitelli followed and poked it past Kehler for a 2-0 lead at 17:00 in the first period.

The Silvertips return to action at 4:05 p.m. Sunday when they play host to the Tri-City Americans at Xfinity Arena.

Winterhawks 7, Silvertips 4

Portland 0 6 1 — 7

Everett 2 1 1 — 4

1st Period-1, Everett, Fonteyne 1 (Dewar, Bajkov), 4:35. 2, Everett, Vitelli 1 (Kindopp, Onyebuchi), 17:00. Penalties-Jokiharju Por (delay of game), 10:12; MacEachern Por (hooking), 11:45; MacEachern Por (hooking), 17:57; McKenzie Por (roughing), 19:25; Bajkov Evt (roughing), 19:25; Richards Evt (roughing), 19:25.

2nd Period-3, Portland, Bellows 1 (Glass, Quigley), 2:43. 4, Portland, MacEachern 1 (Colina, Ginnell), 3:36. 5, Portland, McKenzie 1 (Glass), 5:14. 6, Portland, Blichfeld 1 (Overhardt, Sharp), 8:52. 7, Portland, Overhardt 1 (De Jong), 11:05. 8, Portland, Bellows 2 18:20. 9, Everett, Fonteyne 2 (Bajkov), 19:25. Penalties-Blichfeld Por (slashing), 0:13; Kehler Por (slashing), 1:12; Bajkov Evt (slashing), 2:12; Blichfeld Por (roughing), 5:24; Hughes Por (roughing, 10-minute misconduct), 5:24; Overhardt Por (roughing), 5:24; Butt Evt (roughing), 5:24; Liwiski Evt (roughing, 10-minute misconduct), 5:24; Gricius Por (cross checking), 12:48; MacEachern Por (high sticking), 15:26.

3rd Period-10, Portland, Glass 1 (Colina, Ginnell), 2:05. 11, Everett, Sutter 1 (Richards, Kindopp), 15:20 (PP). Penalties-Bellows Por (holding), 8:37; MacEachern Por (hooking), 9:04; Hanus Por (cross checking, 10-minute misconduct), 14:14; Liwiski Evt (10-minute misconduct), 14:14; Butt Evt (tripping), 18:29.

Shots on Goal-Portland 7-17-6-30. Everett 8-6-14-28.

Power Play Opportunities-Portland 0 / 2; Everett 1 / 10.

Goalies-Portland, Kehler 1-0-0-0 (15 shots-11 saves). Everett, Luding 0-0-0-0 (19 shots-15 saves); Belluk 0-1-0-0 (6 shots-3 saves).

A-5,873

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