Silvertips halt their five-game skid

EVERETT — For the first time in more than two weeks, the Everett Silvertips tasted victory.

Dan Gendur broke a deadlock with a power-play goal early in the third period and the Silvertips defeated the Prince George Cougars 4-2 Friday night at Comcast Arena to snap their five-game losing streak.

“It’s been a while,” Gendur said about the victory. “I think we had a pretty good game tonight. We cycled the puck well and got a lot of chances five-on-five.”

Gendur, Shane Harper and Vitaly Karamnov each had a goal and an assist to lead Everett (30-25-0-2), which last won on Jan. 24 against this same Prince George team.

“It’s definitely nice to get a win after those five games,” said Everett defenseman Dane Crowley, who did yeoman’s work with the Tips short-handed at the back. “Our forwards helped our defensemen out so much tonight. They came back on everything, I don’t even think they got an odd-man rush against us tonight.”

Zach Hamill also scored and Leland Irving stopped 25 shots in goal for Everett, which faces Prince George again tonight at Comcast Arena.

Cody Hobbs and Dana Tyrell scored for Prince George (15-36-1-3), which lost its third straight. Real Cyr stopped 30 shots in goal for the Cougars.

Since their last victory, the Tips faced some of the best the Western Conference had to offer — Seattle, Kelowna, Vancouver, Spokane — and although Everett fought hard in those games they were unable to pull anything out. Often the Tips found themselves with good possession in the offensive zone, but rarely did it lead to scoring chances. As a result, Everett scored just eight goals during the five-game skid.

And for much of Friday night’s game it looked like it was going to be more of the same. Everett kept Prince George pinned back in its own end for minutes at a time, yet wasn’t able to convert those possessions into goals, and twice the Tips found themselves playing from behind.

However, Everett eventually was able to find the finish that had been missing during the losing streak. Gendur scored with a wrist shot from the point after a quick change of direction to break a 2-2 tie at 5 minutes, 41 seconds of the third.Hamill then iced it by poking home his own rebound on a breakaway at 14:04.

“It was a little nerve-wracking there,” Everett coach John Becanic said. “I didn’t know what we could do to score. We certainly managed to control the time of possession.

“All you can do is work hard and we spent three-quarters of the game in the offensive zone, we just couldn’t finish,” Becanic added. “Our guys worked really hard tonight and sometimes the puck goes in and sometimes it doesn’t. I feel fortunate that we won, but by the same token I thought we deserved to win.”

Everett had the run of play early, but found itself behind 5:10 into the game. A deflected pass came out to Hobbs pinching in from the right point and he fired a shot into the far corner to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead.

Everett tied it up at the 13:53 mark. Cyr spilled Chris de la Lande’s shot from the right point. Harper picked out the rebound and flipped the puck over Cyr to make it 1-1.

Everett was the better team again in the second period, but again it was Prince George that found the net first. Tyrell was tripped up by a diving Jonathan Harty while on a breakwaway and given a penalty shot, which he converted on a move to his forehand that gave the Cougars another lead at 16:26.

And again Everett tied it before the period was over. Harper received the puck in the left slot and cut across goal. Although he lost control, the puck continued sliding to the far post where Karamnov was able to put it in and make it 2-2.

Slap shots: Defenseman Brenden Stephen made his debut for the Tips. The 1990-born Stephen was called up to help fill in for injured defensemen Taylor Ellington (foot), Graham Potuer (flu) and Mike Alexander (shoulder), who were all scratched. … Karamnov was back in the lineup after missing five games with a bruised shoulder. … With backup goaltender Ian Curtis out with a shoulder injury, Prince George had 17-year-old Joel Danyluk in to back up Cyr.

Silvertips 4, Cougars 2

Prince George110—2

Everett112—4

@5. NHL box :First Period—1, Prince George, Hobbs 2, 5:10. 2, Everett, Harper 12 (de la Lande, Karamnov), 13:53. Penalties—Hobbs, Prince George (roughing), 2:47; Harty, Everett (boarding), 2:47; D. Tyrell, Prince George (interference), 6:14; Thiessen, Prince George (instigator-fighting-10-minute misconduct), 9:22; Ius, Everett (fighting), 9:22; Sagert, Prince George (roughing), 10:04; Maylan, Prince George (roughing), 10:04; Deagle, Prince George (roughing), 10:04; Gendur, Everett (hooking), 10:04; Beach, Everett (roughing-10-minute misconduct), 10:04; Hamill, Everett (roughing), 10:04; Mistelbacher, Everett (roughing), 10:04.

Second Period—3, Prince George, D. Tyrell 22 (penalty shot), 16:26. 4, Everett, Karamnov 9 (Harper), 18:59. Penalties—Vartovnik, Everett (boarding), 0:20; Hobbs, Prince George (checking from behind), 5:48.

Third Period—5, Everett, Gendur 23 (Beach, Harty), 5:41 (pp). 6, Everett, Hamill 19 (Bauer, Gendur), 14:04. Penalties—Magnusson, Prince George (holding), 5:22.

Shots on goal—Prince George 11-6-10—27. Everett 16-13-5—34. Power-play opportunities—Prince George 0 of 2. Everett 1 of 4.

Goalies—Prince George, Cyr 8-20-1-2 (34 shots, 30 saves). Everett, Irving 22-21-0-2 (27 shots, 25 saves).

A—6,164.

Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog