Silvertips rally in 3rd to knock off Chiefs

SPOKANE — The Silvertips have been peaking at the right time lately. Not just in the season, but during games, too.

Everett scored three goals over the final 20 minutes to erase a one-goal deficit and knocked off the Spokane Chiefs, 3-1, on Tuesday at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.

“We just elevated our game,” head coach Dennis Williams said. “We played the way we were supposed to. We were faster on pucks, we were getting pucks deep, turnovers were limited, our ‘D’ was moving pucks faster.”

Not only does it extend the Silvertips’ winning streak to four games, but the Silvertips have outscored their opponent 6-0 in the third period or later in the last three games. In two of those, versus Tri-City on Friday and Tuesday at Spokane, the Silvertips have wiped out goal deficits.

“That’s where it really challenges you and what we’re faced with over these last six games as we going into it is playoff type hockey,” Williams said. “That’s what you’re going to see is a 1-1, 1-0 game going into the third. It’s going to be the team that can close it that will come out on top.”

Silvertips rookie Ronan Seeley chose a terrific time to pot his first career Western Hockey League goal, tying the game up with a shot from the point made its way through traffic 1:38 into the third period.

“It got us going,” Williams said. “(It was) a nice job by him keeping his head up, stopping the puck and hitting it there all in one motion. It was a really nice goal.”

Before that, Everett struggled with possession and penalties in a Spokane-dominated second period, with the Chiefs leading shots on goal 15-7.

After Justyn Gurney took an interference penalty with 12:55 remaining, Sahvan Khaira was assessed a double-minor for high sticking 1:40 later, setting Spokane up with 40 seconds of a 5-on-3 power-play.

Jaret Anderson-Dolan made them pay 25 seconds into the two-man advantage to put Spokane up 1-0. The Los Angeles Kings prospect took advantage of a netfront screen from Luc Smith a snapped a shot past Dustin Wolf for his 15th goal of the season. New Jersey Devils prospect Ty Smith and Riley Woods picked up the assists.

“It wasn’t a very good start for us, that first 40 (minutes),” said Everett captain Connor Dewar, who signed an entry-level contract with the Minnesota Wild earlier in the day. “I thought we kind of had it going in the second period until we took those penalties. Five minutes of penalties against the power-play unit in the league and they made us pay on one.”

The Silvertips tilted the ice in the third, outshooting the Chiefs 15-4.

After Seeley’s equalizer, Dawson Butt put the Silvertips up 2-1 just 2:55 later by deflecting in a shot from Wyatte Wylie for his eighth goal of the season. Connor Dewar earned the secondary assist.

Reece Vitelli provided the Silvertips an insurance goal with 3:57 remaining. The refs may have missed an offside call, but Vitelli skated to the net and finished the breakaway chance for his 10th goal of the year.

“I thought a lot of it was our perserverance,” Williams said. “Our guys did a good job of hitting that reset button and skating like they know how.”

Wolf made 24 saves for Everett to pick up his 40th win of the season.

Brkin stopped 24 of 27 shots for Spokane.

Next up

Everett travels to Kennewick to close out its season-series with Tri-City on Friday at the Toyota Center.

Notes

—The Silvertips now lead Vancouver by two points in the Western Conference standings, but the idle Giants possess a game-in-hand. Vancouver play next on Wednesday at Kamloops.

—Everett wrapped up its eight-game regular season with Spokane on Tuesday. The Silvertips earned a point in all eight contests and won six in regulation.

—Prince Albert secured the Scotty Munro Trophy, awarded to the team with the best regular season record, after a 6-0 win over Swift Current on Tuesday. The Raiders are 51-9-2-2 this season.

—Wolf was named the Canadian Hockey League’s goaltender of the week for the third time this season on Tuesday.

Josh Horton covers the Everett Silvertips and AquaSox for The Everett Daily Herald. Follow him on Twitter (@joshhortonEDH) or reach out to him over email (jhorton@heraldnet.com).