KENNEWICK — It’s obviously unintentional.
But the top-seeded Everett Silvertips are following the same path they did through the first two rounds of the WHL’s Western Conference playoffs. Namely, split the first two games at home before trekking to a hostile road building.
In both instances the Silvertips regrouped to win three straight as they dispatched both first-round opponent Seattle and second-round foe Portland in five games to reach the conference finals for the first time in a dozen years.
Now the Tips head to the Toyota Center with their series against the Tri-City Americans knotted at a game apiece. Game 3 tips off at 7:05 p.m. Monday.
“It’s not the position we want to be in, but we’ve been here before so we just gotta do some video and refocus for Game 3,” said overager Kevin Davis, Everett’s ever-succinct and longest-tenured defenseman.
If Everett’s past two series are any guide, tonight’s game could be the turning point of the series. The Tips weathered Seattle’s best assault during the opening period of Game 3 in the first round as Carter Hart saved 23 of the Thunderbirds’ 24 shots en route to a 33-save effort in a 3-1 victory.
In the second round at Portland, the Tips scored three times in the opening period, allowed the Winterhawks to get within 3-2 before answering on the ensuing shift and burying them with two third-period goals in a 6-2 win.
But this is a Tri-City team with greater depth than Portland. On Saturday, it was the Americans’ third line that led the way as Parker AuCoin had two goals and an assist, and linemate Maxwell James scored the game-winner less than two minutes after Everett’s Garrett Pilon had tied the contest.
“We have to do a better job defending that (third) line,” Everett head coach Dennis Williams said. “We were getting out-muscled net front, out-manned net front and we were pushed around in the blue paint and it’s something we have to address and look at how we can adjust.”
Thus far Everett has done well at containing Tri-City’s top line of Michael Rasmussen, Morgan Geekie and Kyle Olson. Other than Rasmussen’s empty-netter to seal Game 2, that trio has not scored an even-strength goal through the first two games of the series. Rasmussen and Geekie each put up 24 points through eight postseason games as the Americans swept both Kelowna and Victoria in the first two rounds.
But simply containing that line will not be enough to win the series.
“We need to do a better job of getting consistency of shifts,” Williams said. “We were having a good shift, one off. Two good shifts, one off. We gotta do a better job of being able to roll lines out there and just do a much better job with the pucks.”
The Tips went 2-2 at Toyota Center during the regular season, but the Americans’ enigmatic regular season makes it difficult to predict how Games 3 and 4 will play out.
The series is guaranteed to return to Angel of the Winds Arena for Game 5 Saturday.
For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter.
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