EVERETT — With Everett’s stout defense and Portland’s electric offense, something had to give in Saturday’s showdown.
Unfortunately for the Silvertips, the Winterhawks’ strength prevailed.
Portland scored two even-strength goals and added two empty-netters and cruised past Everett, 4-1, at Angel of the Winds Arena, snapping the Silvertips’ three-game win streak.
“Portland’s obviously a really good team,” Everett forward Bryce Kindopp said. “We had our chances (and) didn’t bury them. They capitalized on theirs and that’s how it went, pretty much.”
The Silvertips topped the Winterhawks, 3-1, in the team’s first meeting on Sept. 23, but Portland was without center Cody Glass — the No. 6 overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft, who was still in training camp with the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Everett entered Saturday’s game allowing just four goals over its last three games, but with Glass back in Portland’s lineup and paired with Joachim Blichfield, a San Jose Sharks prospect who leads the Western Hockey League in points with 17, Portland’s top line was too much to handle on Saturday.
“Those are probably the two best forwards in the league, Cody Glass and Blichfield,” Everett head coach Dennis Williams said. “They’re a one-two punch out there. You can see how good they are, how dominant they are. I think if you watch how they’ve played since Cody Glass has come back, they’ve given every team probably fits out there.”
The Winterhawks have scored 16 goals over their past three games, with Blichfield totaling nine points (five goals, four assists) and Glass chipping in five (one goal, four assists).
Portland defenseman Brendan De Jong rushed up the ice and stung a slapshot past Dustin Wolf’s blocker side to put the Winterhawks up 1-0 at the 12:02 mark of the first period.
The Silvertips responded quickly with Kindopp scoring a short-handed breakaway goal with 11:09 remaining in the first after Reece Vitelli was sent to the penalty box for high sticking.
“I got lucky, poked a puck and I kind of lost it a bit,” Kindopp said. “I like to (shoot gloveside), so I went there and luckily it went in.”
The 19-year-old forward’s stick woke up over the weekend, as Kindopp recorded three points — he netted a goal and chipped in an assist against Seattle on Friday — after going scoreless over the Silvertips’ first three games.
It was only a matter of time for Kindopp, according to Williams.
“He’s our most consistent player night-in, night-out, for the most part” Williams said. “I said to the guys, if you want to follow somebody, follow Bryce Kindopp right now and how he goes about his business. And he gets rewarded for it. He plays the game hard, wins his board battles, tracks pucks, goes to the net, blocks pucks. It’s amazing how when you play the game right, it comes back to pay.”
The Winterhawks soon reclaimed their lead with 16-year-old forward Seth Jarvis putting away the eventual game-winner on a rebound goal while with the man advantage after Everett’s Luke Ormsby was called for high sticking.
“We just passed it down to Blichfield and he one-timed it, then I just slid, kind of overplayed it too much and just set it up in the slot. (Jarvis) just tapped it in,” Wolf said.
The Silvertips generated 13 shots on goal in the third period and were gifted three power plays, but couldn’t put the puck past Portland goaltender Shane Farkas, who stopped 27 of 28 shots.
Everett went 0-of-6 with the man advantage on Saturday and are 18th out of 22 teams with a 16.7 success rate on the power play this season.
“I’m sure the guys are disappointed,” Williams said of his team’s power play. “We’ve talked about it to them a lot. It’s no secret. The only way we can get over that is to buckle up and continue to build confidence being in the tough areas to score goals and get shots off. It’s going to come. It’s going to break out, and when it does it usually comes in waves, I told them, and we just have to not panic.”
Blichfield, who assisted on Portland’s two first-period goals, scored two empty-net goals in the final two minutes of the game to ice it.
Portland had a 31-28 shot advantage.
Wolf saved 27 of 29 attempts for the Silvertips (3-3-0-0).
Richards suspended
Silvertips forward Sean Richards was suspended for a to-be-determined length of time by the Western Hockey League Saturday after he was issued with a check-to-the-head major penalty during Everett’s 2-1 overtime win over Seattle on Friday.
Richards was issued three separate suspensions last season for similar offenses.
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