Silvertips promise, inexperience show in tourney finale loss

Published 11:06 pm Sunday, August 31, 2008

EVERETT — Upon completion of the Everett Silvertips Preseason Tournament on Sunday night, the Tips learned two things about their inexperienced squad.

First, they learned the newcomers appear to have what it takes to eventually compete at the Western Hockey League level.

Second, they learned they still need to master playing with a lead.

The Chilliwack Bruins scored twice in the final 11 minutes of the game to turn defeat into victory, and the Tips turned off the lights on the three-day tournament with a 3-2 loss at Comcast Arena.

Jaden Potter and Carter Berg scored four minutes apart midway through the third period as Chilliwack quickly turned a one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead. This came one night after the Tips built a 7-1 lead against Seattle before the T-birds scored the game’s final three goals.

Sunday’s loss meant Everett finished 1-2 at the tournament, displaying both promise and inexperience in the process.

“We learned we need to play better with the lead,” said Everett center Zack Dailey, who scored the Tips’ opening goal. “Today we had a lead, and yesterday we had a lead and they started coming back. So we’ve just got to have the killer instinct and make sure we finish teams off.

“But I was really impressed with our young guys,” Dailey added. “They all played with a lot of passion, blocking shots and everything like that. So I was very impressed with the work and skill that some of the guys showed.”

Kellan Tochkin also scored for Everett, which came into the tournament with a lot of doubts surrounding a team that might feature 12 rookies. After three games of holding their own, including outshooting all three opponents, fears have been somewhat tempered.

“I think the first thing we learned is some of the first year guys can play and be contributors,” Everett coach John Becanic said. “What you want to see is when they play against other team’s good players, can they contribute? I think we’ve seen some guys who can definitely contribute, and physically we can play with anybody. Sometimes you worry about that with so many young guys in the lineup.”

An already young Everett team got even younger Sunday with the news that a pair of veterans were sent home. Nineteen-year-old defenseman Tyler Kieffer and 18-year-old left wing Jordan Mistelbacher were sent home because of a violation of team rules. Everett general manager Doug Soetaert declined further comment, both on the nature of the rules violation and on whether Kieffer or Mistelbacher would be invited back sometime in the future.

Everett also reassigned 16-year-old defenseman Gabe Minville following Sunday’s game. With Kieffer, Mistelbacher and Minville gone, the Tips are left with 24 players on the roster — 14 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders.

As for Sunday’s game, Everett ran into Chilliwack’s two-headed Swedish buzzsaw of Oscar Moller and Alexander Wiklund. Moller, one of the top returning players in the league, and Wiklund, a rookie, were all over the ice as they combined for a goal and four assists.

The duo proved lethal in the third period. Everett led 2-1 midway through the third and looked in good shape when awarded a power play. However, Moller caused the Tips all kinds of trouble, stealing the puck behind the Everett net and sending a pass to a wide open Potter in front. Potter’s first attempt was saved by Shayne Barrie, but he jammed the second one in to tie it up.

Then when the Bruins received a power play of their own, Moller went to work again, this time with the aid of Wiklund. Moller, doing his best Tasmanian Devil impersonation, single-handedly kept the puck in the offensive zone and forced it to Wiklund in the left corner. Wiklund in turn fed Berg pinching from the point, and Berg fired a wrister into the corner to give Chilliwack the lead.

“It’s hard to contain Moller, he’s a very talented player,” Becanic said. “They’ve got some good speed on that team so we struggled a little bit with that. But all-in-all it was a fairly good weekend with regards to growth.”

Luke Siemens made 30 saves in goal for Chilliwack, which finished the tournament 2-1.

Barrie took the loss, stopping 14 of the 16 shots he faced. Kent Simpson, who started in goal for the Tips, made 14 saves on 15 shots.

Slap shots: Everett suffered a blow to its momentum when, leading 2-1 early in the second period, star winger Kyle Beach was a given a game misconduct for fighting — all fighting majors result in a game misconduct during the preseason — after being baited by Chilliwack 16-year-old Tyler Stahl. … Justin Feser scored two goals, leading the Tri-City Americans to a 3-1 victory over the Spokane Chiefs in the day’s first game. Tri-City finished the tournament a perfect 3-0, Spokane finished 1-2. … Jacob De Serres made 41 saves, and the Seattle Thunderbirds held on to defeat the Portland Winter Hawks 4-3 in the middle game. Both Seattle and Portland finished 1-2.

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