EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips turned in perhaps their best performance of the season Friday night, knocking off the Tri-City Americans 3-1 at Xfinity Arena.
Everett dominated play through the first two periods and finished with a 38-13 shot advantage for the game. However, with the puck reluctant to find the net, the Tips needed two third-period goals from Nikita Scherbak to shake off the Americans.
Carson Stadnyk also scored and Kevin Davis added two assists for Everett (7-1-2-1), which pulled ahead of Tri-City for first place in the U.S. Division. Carter Hart had a largely uneventful night in goal for the Tips, being required to make just 12 saves.
Jackson Playfair scored the lone goal for Tri-City (8-6-0-0). Eric Comrie played well in net for Tri-City, keeping the Americans in the contest by making 35 saves.
The first period was all one-way traffic as the Tips dominated the action. Not only did Everett outshoot Tri-City 21-3, the Americans must have blocked another 10 shots that were headed on goal. However, the Tips were unable to turn any of those shots into goals. The biggest chance fell to Logan Aasman, who had a loose puck right in front with Comrie down. However, Aasman put his shot right into Comrie’s glove, and it remained scoreless through one.
The second period was more of the same as Everett continued to control the puck, but without finding the finish as Cole MacDonald had a pair of chances denied when ghosting in from his defensive position at the back door.
But Everett finally found the breakthrough at 6 minutes, 27 seconds. Stadnyk outfought his marker for the puck along the right boards, headed toward goal, then fired a shot to the far corner to finally give the Tips their deserved 1-0 lead.
The Tips had a brief moment of letdown to start the third period, with Brayden Low taking a holding penalty less than a minute into the game, and the Americans capitalized at 1:07. Travis Hamonic wristed a shot from the right point that Playfair tipped into the far corner to create an unlikely tie game.
But Everett received its own chance on the power play later in the period, and the Tips converted to restore their lead. MacDonald blasted a shot from the center point that was blocked in front. However, the puck went to Scherbak in the right circle, and he one-timed it past a downed Comrie to make it 2-1 at 8:30.
Tri-City went full-out to try and tie it in the final minutes, pulling Comrie for an extra attacker with 1:59 remaining. However, MacDonald did a good job skating the puck out of the zone, then forechecking by Patrick Bajkov created a turnover that gave Scherbak a gimme empty-net goal to seal the victory.
Scherbak’s two goals gave him seven in eight games since the first-round NHL draft pick was acquired from Saskatoon. He and Stadnyk are tied for the team lead.
Silvertips 3, Americans 1
Tri-City001—1
Everett012—3
First Period—no goals. Penalties—Thrower, Tri-City (slashing), 1:42; Williams, Tri-City (delay of game), 10:36; Hillis, Tri-City (charging), 16:04.
Second Period—1, Everett, Stadnyk 7 (Davis), 6:27. Penalties—Aasman, Everett (roughing), 7:01; J. Playfair, Tri-City (roughing), 10:45; Cochrane, Everett (tripping), 12:55.
Third Period—2, Tri-City, J. Playfair 3 (Hamonic, Carlo), 1:07 (pp). 3, Everett, Scherbak 6 (MacDonald, Davis), 8:30 (pp). Penalties—Low, Everett (holding), 0:59; Purtill, Tri-City (high sticking), 7:16; Guiterrez, Tri-City (10-minute misconduct), 19:47; McCue, Tri-City (roughing), 19:47; Williams, Tri-City (roughing), 19:47; Low, Everett (roughing), 19:47; Stadnyk, Everett (roughing), 19:47.
Shots on goal—Tri-City 3-5-5—13. Everett 21-9-8—38. Power-play opportunities—Tri-City 1 of 3. Everett 1 of 5.
Goalies—Tri-City, E. Comrie 6-5-0-0 (37 shots, 35 saves). Everett, Hart 2-0-1-0 (13 shots, 12 saves).
A—3,522.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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