Silvertips win, but can’t gain ground in fight for first

EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips did their part Friday night. However, they still need some help.

The Tips kept their hopes for the Western Hockey League’s U.S. Division title and the top seed in the Western Conference alive, defeating the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-1 before a record crowd at Comcast Arena.

However, Everett’s destiny remains out of its own hands.

Tri-City, which occupies first place in both the division and the conference, won 4-3 in Spokane on Friday night to maintain a two-point lead over the Tips. If Tri-City wins the return leg against Spokane in Kennewick tonight in its final game, then the Americans clinch first, even though Everett has two games remaining. The Tips could only tie Tri-City, and the Americans hold the tiebreaker.

But if Tri-City drops any points tonight, the Tips still have a shot.

“Going into the weekend we wanted to get (first place), but there’s a bigger picture,” Everett coach Craig Hartsburg said. “I thought tonight we played a better game than we did the past week or so, so that’s a good sign. We just have to come back (today) and be ready to play again. One step at a time.”

A sellout crowd of 8,613, eclipsing the previous franchise record of 8,606 set during the 2004 WHL championship series against Medicine Hat, watched a tense encounter that the Tips didn’t put away until less than seven minutes remained.

Markus McCrea, Kellan Tochkin and Scott MacDonald scored the goals for Everett (45-20-3-2), which at least got something for its victory. The win, combined with Spokane’s loss, means the Tips clinched no worse than the No. 3 seed. At best the Chiefs can only tie Everett, and the Tips hold that tiebreaker.

Kent Simpson made 26 saves and earned the win in goal.

“We played hard, Hartsburg said. “Give Seattle credit, they work hard and played hard. They’re a frustrating team to play against, they always have four guys back. We had to battle for it, for sure.

“It’s important for us to continue to build our game so we feel good about ourselves at the end of the weekend,” Hartsburg added. “We really haven’t liked how we’ve played the past couple weeks, even though we’ve won some hockey games. We saw a better, consistent effort tonight from more people, and that’s a big step.”

Charles Wells scored and Michael Salmon made 36 saves for Seattle (18-40-7-5), which was playing with a depleted defense. Already a young team, the T-birds were without three defensemen because of injury, meaning center Lindsay Nielsen played as a defenseman and leading scorer Prab Rai also took shifts on defense.

“It was a very good effort,” was Seattle coach Rob Sumner’s evaluation of his team’s performance. “I thought our guys played hard and for the most part played quite well.

“I see real growth in the team,” added Sumner, who’s team won’t be going to the playoffs. “Our young kids are playing key minutes in key roles. That’s invaluable experience and they’re responding well.”

Everett got off to a dream start when the Tips scored 4:01 into the game. Dan Iwanski doubled back and forth behind the net before finding a lane to put the puck out front. The puck deflected to McCrea, who banged it past Salmon to give Everett a 1-0 lead.

The Tips continued to control play the rest of the period, but were unable to put in another, with Radko Gudas ringing a shot off the post on the power play, and it remained 1-0 going into the second.

Everett came out in the second period playing with fire, and the Tips got burned 6:42 in as the T-birds tied it on the power play. With Everett forward Clayton Cumiskey hobbled after blocking a shot, Wells was able to pick out the top corner with a wrister to make it 1-1.

But the Tips got it back with a power-play goal of their own at 11:35. Tochkin, at the left circle, beat Salmon with a shot off the near post to restore Everett’s lead.

“That was a big goal to bounce right back on the power play,” Hartsburg said. “Then in the third period I thought we controlled it pretty good.”

Everett had several chances to put it away in the third, particularly during a five-on-three power play when the Tips inexplicably failed to pull the trigger with the net gaping on multiple occasions. But the Tips did get the clinching goal at 13:22. Iwanski’s shot appeared harmless, but it got through Salmon, with MacDonald getting the final touch to tap it in.

Silvertips 3, Thunderbirds 1

Seattle010—1

Everett111—3

First Period—1, Everett, McCrea 5 (Iwanski, Cumiskey), 4:01. Penalties—Nielsen, Seattle (holding), 14:39.

Second Period—2, Seattle, Wells 20, 6:42 (pp). 3, Everett, Tochkin 27 (Gudas, Murray), 11:35 (pp). Penalties—Kulchar, Everett (slashing), 1:16; Froese, Everett (hooking), 5:49; Wells, Seattle (hooking), 10:40; Dillon, Seattle (roughing), 12:59.

Third Period—4, Everett, MacDonald 9 (Iwanski), 13:22. Penalties—Rissanen, Everett (hooking), 1:06; Sentyurin, Seattle (tripping), 3:36, Dillon, Seattle (hooking), 4:35; Dillon, Seattle (diving), 6:55; Rissanen, Everett (roughing), 6:55.

Shots on goal—Seattle 7-13-7—27. Everett 12-16-11—39. Power-play opportunities—Seattle 1 of 3. Everett 1 of 5.

Goalies—Seattle, Salmon 1-5-0-0 (39 shots, 36 saves). Everett, Simpson 22-9-1-0 (27 shots, 26 saves).

A—8,613.

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