Silvertips improve, but still lose 6-4 to Spokane

EVERETT — It wasn’t a win, but at least it was progress for the Everett Silvertips.

Everett took a substantive step forward Saturday night, despite its 6-4 loss to the Spokane Chiefs on day two of the Everett Silvertips Preseason Tournament at Comcast Arena.

The Tips broke down in the third period against Spokane, surrendering five goals in giving up 3-1 and 4-3 leads.

However, for two periods it was big improvement upon Everett’s performance in Friday’s 5-2 exhibition-opening defeat at the hands of the Tri-City Americans, when the Tips were outclassed.

“Our guys responded quite well,” Everett coach Mark Ferner said. “We had a good skate this morning, we had a good meeting, we watched our video. I know things aren’t going to change overnight, but it was encouraging for two periods anyways.”

Matt Marantz and Brenden Kichton each scored two goals to lead Spokane (2-0 preseason) and Liam Stewart, the son of rock star Rod Stewart and supermodel Rachel Hunter, scored the tiebreaker with five minutes remaining in regulation. Riley Whittingham scored the other goal for the Chiefs.

Cody Fowlie scored twice and Josh Birkholz found the net for the second straight game to pace Everett (0-2). Vladimir Dolnik potted Everett’s other goal.

“We kind of shut down at the end there,” Fowlie said. “We had a really good first two periods, lots of hitting and lots of shots. We can’t break down in the third like that.”

The Tips looked much improved from Friday night right from the start. Everett was outshot 16-1 in the first period Friday, but the Tips held their own against the Chiefs early despite getting into penalty trouble. Then Everett grabbed a 2-0 lead thanks to a rocket shot from Birkholz and a hard-working goal in front by Dolnik.

The game continued in that vein through the second period, with the Tips doing particularly good work while killing off a five-minute penalty that included a full two-minutes of five-on-three.

But the penalty killing took its toll on the Tips — Everett faced nine Spokane power plays, including the five-minute advantage and two five-on-threes. By the time the third period rolled around the Tips were running on fumes.

“We got ourselves into penalty trouble, we had a couple guys kicked out, and we ran out of gas,” Ferner said. “Give them credit, they kept coming. They’re a 60-minute hockey team.

“For the most part our guys competed real hard,” Ferner added. “For two periods I think they were committed to what’s important, which is chipping pucks and getting pucks deep.”

Everett appeared in good shape heading into the third, having outshot Spokane 19-17 en route to a 3-1 lead.

But an early Spokane goal turned the tide. Kichton’s shot from the point beat Desautels clean at 3:00 to make it a one-goal game, and that turned the tide. The Chiefs tied it just 1:29 later when Whittingham cleaned up a deflected shot in front.

Everett briefly restored its lead at 8:16 when Ryan Harrison dashed around the Spokane net, and although his wraparound attempt was saved, Fowlie was on hand to jam the puck home.

But Kichton tied it up again at 11:50, scrambling in a puck from close range during a delayed penalty after Desautels was unable to cover. Then Stewart gave the Chiefs their first lead at 14:42 when Tyler King’s centering feed was deflected by Desautels off Stewart’s shoulder and into the top corner.

Marantz added a late empty-net goal to complete the scoring.

Afternoon game

Brendan Shinnimin scored the only goal in a shootout as the Tri-City Americans edged the Portland Winterhawks 5-4. Tri-City (2-0) rallied from a 4-2 third-period deficit behind goals from Justin Feser and Malte Stromwall. Olli Dickson and Brian Williams also scored for the Americans. Nic Petan, Oliver Gabriel, Ty Rattie and Jason Trott found the net for Portland (0-1).

Chiefs 6, Silvertips 4

Spokane 0 1 5–6

Everett 2 1 1–4

First Period–1, Everett, Birkholz 2 (Giebel), 10:37. 2, Everett, Dolnik 1 (Fowlie, Morden), 15:37 (pp). Penalties–Giebel, Everett (tripping), 1:58; Hand, Everett (slashing), 2:41; Valcourt, Spokane (boarding), 5:39; Walters, Everett (elbowing), 8:18; Morden, Everett (elbowing), 11:46; Vandane, Spokane (interference), 13:47; Valcourt, Spokane (instigator-fighting-game misconduct), 19:13; McPhee, Everett (fighting), 19:13.

Second Period–3, Spokane, Marantz 1 (Mort), 6:39 (pp). 4, Everett, Fowlie 1 (Yadlowski, Birkholz), 16:25 (pp). Penalties–Harrison, Everett (roughing), 4:58; Mychan, Everett (major-checking to the head-game misconduct), 8:12; Harrison, Everett (delay of game), 9:14; Whittingham, Spokane (tripping), 16:01; Yadlowski, Everett (slashing), 18:48.

Third Period–5, Spokane, Kichton 1 (Kalus), 3:00. 6, Spokane, Whittingham 1 (Marantz), 4:29. 7, Everett, Fowlie 2 (Harrison), 8:16. 8, Spokane, Kichton 2 (Chartier, Kuhn), 11:50. 9, Spokane, Stewart 1 (King, Gal), 14:42. 10, Spokane, Marantz 2 (Kuhn), 19:29 (en). Penalties–Lamothe, Spokane (roughing), 0:53; Henry, Everett (hooking), 0:53; McPhee, Everett (roughing), 0:53; Nelson, Spokane (fighting-game misconduct), 5:30; Dolnik, Everett (fighting-game misconduct), 5:30.

Shots on goal–Spokane 11-6-16–33. Everett 8-11-4–23. Power-play opportunities–Spokane 1 of 9. Everett 2 of 4.

Goalies–Spokane, Edwards (14 shots, 12 saves), Rachoky 1-0 (9 shots, 7 saves). Everett, Lotz (16 shots, 15 saves), Desautels 0-1 (16 shots, 12 saves).

Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.