EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips have begun their preparations for their first-round playoff series against the Kelowna Rockets.
However, there’s still the lingering question of what could have been.
With a chance at claiming the WHL’s U.S. Division title and the Western Conference’s top seed to the playoffs, the Tips fell 3-2 to the Spokane Chiefs in Sunday’s season finale.
All Everett needed from that game was a single point to pass the Tri-City Americans and claim the banner. However, the Tips couldn’t get the game into overtime and were thus unable to pull out of their first-place tie with Tri-City. The Americans held the tiebreaker, meaning Tri-City claimed the prize and Everett was relegated to the No. 3 seed in the conference.
And in the aftermath the Tips expressed disappointment that, given the circumstances, they didn’t produce a better effort.
“I was surprised how we played, actually,” Everett coach Craig Hartsburg said Monday. “It was disappointing how we played. We certainly didn’t show a lot of urgency in the game. We had a chance and pretty much gave it away. We had so much energy and focus the night before (a 5-0 victory over Chilliwack in the home finale), and to show up like that in (Sunday’s) game is pretty disappointing. But it’s water under the bridge now, there’s nothing we can do about that but learn from it.”
Tips captain Zack Dailey echoed those thoughts: “It was definitely disappointing, but we got what we deserved. We didn’t play a very good game. No one showed up to work, our goalie (Thomas Heemskerk) was the only one who was playing hard. They just outworked and outcompeted us. The score was close, but they really controlled the game.”
Spokane appeared ripe for the picking. The Chiefs had nothing left to play for, having already been locked into the fourth seed. In addition, Spokane was without leading goal scorer Kyle Beach, who suffered an injury in the previous night’s game at Tri-City.
Yet Spokane coach Hardy Sauter fielded a full-strength team — minus Beach — and the Chiefs stymied the Tips to hand Tri-City its third straight U.S. Division title.
“As a group we talked, we believe that the game is fair,” Sauter told the Spokane Spokesman-Review about why he chose to go all-out for the victory. “If you self-sabotage or you don’t put your best effort forward, at some point its going to come back and bite you.
“Ultimately if you take someone for granted or don’t give someone the respect they deserve, you dont feel good about yourself. So you sacrifice a lot of things just to have a good effort.”
Everett’s greatest downfall Sunday was a familiar one against the Chiefs. Spokane scored on two of its first three power plays and finished the game 2-for-5. That continued the Chiefs’ trend of converting power plays against the Tips. In their past four meetings Spokane went 8-for-18 on the power play, scoring eight of its 11 goals on the advantage.
Each of those two power-play goals Sunday gave Spokane the lead. Both times Everett came back to tie it, and the Tips were in position to earn their point going into the third period tied 2-2. But Mitch Holmberg took advantage of an Everett turnover to put Spokane ahead one last time with just over 10 minutes remaining, and the Tips were unable to mount a threat down the stretch.
“For whatever reason we didn’t get the job done,” Hartsburg said. “But it’s something we can’t dwell on at this moment. It’s over and done with and we have to move on.”
By finishing with the No. 3 seed Everett drew a dangerous Kelowna team in the first round. The Rockets finished with a modest 35-31-2-4 record during the regular season to take the No. 6 seed, and the Tips finished 4-1 against Kelowna in the season series. But Kelowna spent much of the regular season battling through a lengthy list of injuries to important players. The Rockets have returned to health just in time for the playoffs and are many people’s sleeper pick in the conference.
“They’re a good team, a lot better than their record shows,” Dailey said of the Rockets. “They had a lot of guys hurt this year. They’re a fast, physical team and we better show up ready to work and battle and compete.”
The best-of-seven series begins Friday in Everett.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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