TALKING POINTS
The Tips took one to the gut tonight as Spokane’s Kailer Yamamoto scored with 12.1 seconds remaining to win it. That’s a heck of a way for a 16-year-old rookie to score his first WHL goal.
The sequence that led to Yamamoto’s goal was not a good one for Everett. Take it away, Kevin Constantine:
“You can’t change when the puck is on your side of the red line, and our line changed, so that was the biggest thing I saw. Then when our D got the puck, when you don’t have play your best play is not to make a play, and we tried to bat it out along the boards when we could have just eaten the puck. So I thought it was poorly played both from what our defense tried to do with the puck, and the fact our forwards changed was a bigger contributor to it — we only had two D on the ice when they scored, we had no forwards out there.”
It seemed like Everett was headed to overtime for the fifth time in 10 outings. Instead, the Tips suffered their first regulation loss of the season.
But while the game-winning goal was a bad moment for Everett, it was hardly the reason why the Tips lost. Spokane outworked Everett all night long, winning races to pucks and winning 50-50 battles. There was one stretch during an Everett power play where it seemed like Spokane was the team with the extra skater on the ice.
The Chiefs also capitalized on rebounds far better than the Tips, and they took advantage of a night when Everett goaltender Austin Lotz had difficulty controlling his rebounds, scoring three straight rebound goals in the first period. The loss was Lotz’s first regulation defeat in 19 decisions, dating back to February.
It was also apparent just how thin the margin is with regards to depth. When Everett had a fourth line of Graham Millar, Matt Fonteyne and Tyler Sandhu, the Tips had a big advantage in being able to roll four lines without really having to worry about match-ups. But with Sandhu traded away and Dawson Leedahl out injured, suddenly the Tips using their fourth line sparingly.
Lastly, there was an announced crowd of 2,867 tonight. I’m not sure the last time there was a crowd of less than 3,000.
TURNING POINT
Hello, Kailer Yamamoto.
THREE STARS
First star: Yamamoto. One goal, the only more memorable first WHL goal that comes to mind is Zach Hamill’s overtime playoff winner in 2004 against these same Chiefs.
Second star: Adam Helewka, Spokane. One goal, he’s the best skill player Spokane’s got.
Third star: Nikita Scherbak, Everett. One goal and one assist, seemed to have earned the Tips at least a point with his third-period tying goal.
The Herald’s honorable mention: Calder Brooks, Spokane. One goal, he was the poster child for the Chiefs’ tenacity tonight. Great pick-up by Spokane. Did the Chiefs really get him from Prince Albert for just a fifth-round bantam pick?
BOX SCORE
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