EVERETT — Six of the 10 regular-season meetings between the Everett Silvertips and Seattle Thunderbirds were decided by one goal this season and that trend has carried over into the postseason.
Seattle’s Donovan Neuls scored the game-winner with 59 seconds to play — less than a minute after Aaron Irving’s slap shot tied the game for Everett — and the T-birds topped the Tips 3-2 before 4,588 fans at Xfinity Arena.
The win means Seattle remains unbeaten in five postseason games and gives the T-birds a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series. Seattle did not have a regulation win at Xfinity Arena during the regular season.
The game-winner came off a Mathew Barzal shot that hit Everett goalie Carter Hart and Neuls dug it out of traffic to flick it past Hart.
“They have a good player in Barzal,” Everett head coach Kevin Constantine said. “He controlled the puck in the zone and made a good play. You gotta know what your assignments are in that environment.”
The game was the first for Barzal, the Western Conference Player of the Year, since he skated off the ice during the National Anthem prior to a game against the Tips at ShoWare Center on March 8. However, the T-birds were missing winger Ryan Gropp for the third straight game and regular goaltender Rylan Toth remains out. Toth hasn’t played since leaving Seattle’s March 11 game at Portland.
Everett returned to full health as center Devon Skoleski was back in the lineup after missing the entire first-round series against Victoria.
Seattle finished with a 33-23 shot advantage, but the discrepancy was even more pronounced in the first as the T-birds used an aggressive forecheck and superior size to hold Everett to just two shots in the opening frame.
“They’ve done that to every team all year, so we’re not unusual in not generating a lot of offense against them,” Constantine said. “They don’t give you a lot. They compete and they’re big-bodied and they don’t give you much room.”
Tied 1-1 through two periods, the Thunderbirds reclaimed the lead at 5:31 in the third. Alexander True managed to get a shot off that rebounded off Hart to a crashing Tyler Adams, who dove forward and back-handed the puck into the open net for a 2-1 lead.
But the Tips answered. With Hart on the bench for an extra attacker, Irving found the left corner of the net from 18:22 in the third to tie the game 2-2.
That set up Neuls for the game-winner on the next shift at 19:01 and the T-birds held on.
“Shifts after goals are key and we kind of harped on that all year,” Everett center Matt Fonteyne said. “Especially in the playoffs everything is heightened — the highs and lows. I think we just to be aware of when shifts are important, especially the first minute and last minute of each period.”
It wasn’t until a second-period Seattle power play that Barzal finally got to unleash his abilities. Camped out at the left circle, Barzal corralled a rebound and fired a shot at Hart. The Everett netminder made the initial save but didn’t secure the puck, and Barzal followed by stashing it past Hart for a 1-0 lead at 2:07 in the second period.
It was the first goal Hart had allowed in 136:59 of game action dating back to the second period of Sunday’s five-overtime, series-clinching win at Victoria.
The Tips drew even when they finally reached the double-digit threshold in shots. Carl Stankowski saved Connor Dewar’s wrister from the left circle on the rush, but couldn’t corral the rebound. Eetu Tuulola collected it at the front of the net, spun out and roofed the goal over the prone Stankowski to knot the game 1-1 at 17:53 in the second.
Seattle outshot Everett 13-10 in the second period and took a 25-12 shot advantage into the second intermission. The Tips held an 11-8 shot advantage in the third.
“The first period wasn’t great for us, but after that I thought we got our legs under us and in the third period we created a lot more chances than we did in the two previous periods,” Fonteyne said. “I think moving forward we need to play the way we did in the third.”
The T-birds earned the lone power play in the first frame when Everett took a bench minor for too many men on the ice, but the Tips killed it off. Seattle finished the first period with a 12-2 shot advantage.
“They controlled the shots,” Constantine said. “It’s always a hint, what the shots are. It’s not always a total indication of the play, but I thought we started generating some scoring shots as the game went on.”
Hart finished with 30 saves while Stankowski saved 21 shots.
Game 2 takes place at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Xfinity Arena.
Thunderbirds 3, Silvertips 2
Seattle 0 1 2 — 3
Everett 0 1 1 — 2
1st Period—No Scoring. Penalties—Evt (too many men), 16:04.
2nd Period—1, Seattle, Barzal 1 (True, Neuls), 2:07 (PP). 2, Everett, Tuulola 3 (Dewar, Juulsen), 17:53. Penalties—Bajkov Evt (hooking), 0:57; Strand Sea (interference), 3:27; Skoleski Evt (embellishment), 3:27; Volcan Sea (high sticking), 15:04.
3rd Period—3, Seattle, Adams 1 (True), 5:31. 4, Everett, Irving 1 (Zwerger, Skoleski), 18:22. 5, Seattle, Neuls 4 (Barzal, Strand), 19:01. Penalties—Ottenbreit Sea (holding), 11:44.
Shots on Goal—Seattle 12-13-8-33. Everett 2-10-11-23.
Power Play Opportunities—Seattle 1 / 2; Everett 0 / 2.
Goalies—Seattle, Stankowski (23 shots-21 saves). Everett, Hart (33 shots-30 saves).
A—4,588
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