EVERETT — Zackary Shantz had a clear lane.
Receiving a pass all the way up the left boards from Landon DuPont, the Everett Silvertips forward skated right into a 2-on-1 alongside Jesse Heslop. One good shot would give the Silvertips an overtime victory against the Portland Winterhawks at Angel of the Winds Arena on Sunday.
Shantz skated towards the net and called his own number, but rifled it wide. The puck settled with the Winterhawks, who beat Silvertips goalie Raiden LeGall at the other end of the ice on a cross-ice pass from Ryan Miller to Nathan Free just 40 seconds into the 3-on-3 overtime. Portland (1-2-0-0) overcame a 2-0 deficit to steal the game 3-2. It marked the first loss of the season for Everett (2-0-1-0), and it was the first meeting between the two sides since a much more crushing loss for the Silvertips in April: Game 7 of the WHL Western Conference Second Round.
The stakes were much lower on Sunday, just the third game of the 2025-26 season, but there was no love lost.
“Obviously it’s a little bit of a redemption game,” Silvertips forward Clarke Schaefer said. “We didn’t like how they ended our season, so yeah, I think (there) was a little bit extra of a push coming out of the gates.”
Everett dominated much of the play, outshooting Portland 52-30, but it was the Winterhawks that pulled away with the result in the end, scoring late in the second period and early in the third to force overtime.
The Silvertips fought an uphill battle in the beginning, committing two penalties within the opening 7:22 and allowing the Winterhawks to build momentum. Portland outshot Everett 13-2 through the first 10 minutes of the game, but LeGall stood tall to keep it scoreless. Once back at even strength, the Silvertips started to push back.
Shea Busch had a prime rebound opportunity at 10:45 that he spun around and fired right at Winterhawks goalie Ondrej Stebetak, who later kicked away a point shot from Tarin Smith at around 12:45. Julius Miettinen had perhaps the best chance of the frame, squaring up for a shot that bounced off the right post around the 14:23 mark. By the end of the period, the Winterhawks only led the shot count 16-13.
“(The penalty kill) probably set the tone for a little bit to get back onto our feet,” Everett coach Steve Hamilton said. “Our 5-on-5 game wasn’t great to start tonight, but then the kill kind of energized us, I thought. The game probably looks a lot different if we give up a couple early (goals) to a team that can put the puck in the net and score, so we dug in and gave ourselves a chance.”
Miettinen opened the second period by skating in on net for a shot within the first 30 seconds, and the Silvertips continued to apply pressure and create chances, but Stebetak kept answering the call, making a sliding glove snag on a 2-on-1 against Shantz and Heslop at 5:47.
Everett finally broke through at 11:34, when Miettinen fed Busch from behind the net. Busch sent a knuckle puck up and over Stebetak’s glove and into the net to make it 1-0.
“I was just trying to go to the net, hopefully get a stick on it,” Busch said. “Got a lucky bounce, and that’s what happens when you go to the net.”
Schaefer doubled the lead at 14:33, skating in on the left side and scoring with his backhand after Heslop grabbed a takeaway on Everett’s blue line.
“I saw that I had space on my backhand, and I thought I saw the goalie was cheating (to the other side) a little bit,” Schaefer said.
The Silvertips kept flooring it, with Jaxsin Vaughan narrowly missing Cole Temple on a 2-on-1 around 16:45 and Shantz sending Nolan Caffey’s centering pass wide around 17:35, but Portland got on the board when Finn Spehar found Nathan Brown at the left post from behind the net at 18:15.
Portland came out hungry in the third, putting a couple close chances on LeGall before Alex Weiermair ripped a shot from the left circle to tie it 2-2 at 4:16. Despite letting the Winterhawks back into the game, the Silvertips remained relaxed and confident that they could pull back ahead given how they had been playing so far, according to both Busch and Schaefer.
Indeed, fighting off a more physical Portland back check, Everett started to generate more chances again with players up and down the lineup making plays to set up teammates. Miettinen muscled a puck off Winterhawks defenseman Carter Sotheran to create an offensive zone possession with under three minutes left, and DuPont narrowly missed on a wraparound attempt with 30 seconds left before it went to overtime.
“I would have liked to see them get the third goal,” Hamilton said. “We’ve been getting our looks and our chances, and just haven’t been scoring easily. So you know, it’s all part and parcel to a long season. We’re going to have times where we feel like everything goes in and times where all you can see is chest, and that’s something to work on.”
While the Silvertips didn’t get the result they wanted looking for revenge against a rival team, they tried to put it into perspective of what lies ahead this year.
“The game didn’t end how we wanted it to, but there’s 68 games in the season,” Busch said. “So (we’re) just going to learn from it and keep going.”
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