Silvertips tie T-Birds 1-1

SEATTLE – Jeff Harvey had a strong feeling that he’d been in the same predicament before.

He had. About 22 hours earlier.

Here was Harvey, Everett Silvertips goaltender extraordinaire, watching Seattle’s Dustin Johner flying goalward on Harvey’s right, just as Johner did Saturday night and scored.

This time, with 48 seconds left in the overtime of a 1-1 game, Johner made precisely the same move and blasted precisely the same shot.

Only Harvey shut him down, preserving a 1-1 tie Sunday night before 5,260 Western Hockey League fans at KeyArena.

“It was definitely deja vu,” Harvey said. “I knew he was shooting when he came down. He didn’t look to pass once. He was probably going to go glove again. I just got my glove in there where he wanted to go.”

Said Johner: “Same as last night. This time he got it.”

It was a typical game between two teams developing quite a rivalry. Although the Silvertips (15-13-6) lead the series, 3-1-3, virtually every game has been a close-checking, hard-fought battle, with the exception of the Thunderbirds’ 4-0 victory in Everett on Teddy Bear Night.

Sunday produced another wonderfully played defensive game. Harvey and Seattle goalie Bryan Bridges staged a magnificent battle, turning away 25 and 24 shots on goal, respectively.

“Harvey was brilliant,” Tips coach Kevin Constantine said. “Both goalies were good. We had a lot of chances and they had a lot of chances. Harvey was very, very good and made big saves early.”

He wasn’t bad late, either, when the Thunderbirds (10-17-7) swarmed the net in the waning stages of regulation and in overtime. Harvey made five acrobatic saves in the last five minutes of regulation, and four more in the extra session.

“Harvey was unbelievable as always,” said the Tips’ Barry Horman, who scored his eighth goal of the year. “He stood on his head and made great saves.”

Although Horman scored on a power play in the second period, Everett again showed little firepower in the man advantage.

Part of the problem is the absence of Ivan Baranka, who regularly quarterbacks Everett’s power play and is the most successful at it of all the Silvertips. Baranka is in Europe, competing in the World Junior Championships and may not be back until after New Year’s Day.

“The No. 1 way to get points on the power play is from point shots and rebounds,” Constantine said. “We don’t have the type of threat at the point without him. Now, we become more of a puck-movement power play than a shooting power play.”

The Silvertips cashed in on only one of eight power plays. Once in the second period, they had the advantage for four minutes, courtesy of a double-minor spearing penalty on Seattle’s Adam Huxley, but came up empty.

“It’s something we just have to work on,” Horman said.

Seattle opened the scoring right after that when Ryan Gibbons rebounded his own shot from the left side for his seventh goal of the season.

Everett responded less than a minute later, tying the game on a slap shot by Horman. Horman took a pass from John Dahl from behind the net and beat Bridges, who had little chance to stop it.

The Tips had a chance in the last minute of the second period, but Bridges made a marvelous glove save off a screaming shot by Marc Desloges from point-blank range in front of the net. Bridges stuck his glove out to his left and snared the puck.

With 8.3 seconds remaining in overtime, Everett’s Riley Armstrong had a breakaway and just crossed the blue line before he was slashed and dragged down by Zack Fitzgerald for another penalty. But the Tips couldn’t generate a shot in the remaining seconds before the final buzzer sounded.

Everett 0 1 0 0-1

Seattle 0 1 0 0-1

Second period-1, Seattle, Gibbons 7 (Huxley), 13:42. 2, Everett, Horman 8 (Dahl, Blatchford), 14:35.

Shots on goal: Everett 25, Seattle 26. Power-play opportunities: Everett 8, Seattle 3. Goalies: Everett_Harvey (11-9-4), Seattle_Bridges (6-10-3). Shots faced: Everett Harvey 26, Seattle Bridges 25. Saves: Everett Harvey 25, Seattle Bridges 24. Att.: 5,260