Surging Silvertips skate past Chiefs

Everett solves its power-play struggles and tops Spokane 4-1 for its 5th win in its past 7 contests.

EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips have struggled on the power play for most of November.

That wasn’t the case Friday as the Tips scored twice on the man advantage and went on to defeat the visiting Spokane Chiefs 4-1 before 4,381 fans at Xfinity Arena.

The Tips now have scored power-play goals in three straight games.

“I don’t think we’ve changed a whole lot,” said Tips co-captain Matt Fonteyne, adding that Everett “didn’t panic” during its fruitless power-play streak. “Just kind of changing our mindset a bit, trying to work a little harder. You need the same mindset as five-on-five and then just trying to get traffic in front of the net.”

Carter Hart, the reigning Western Hockey League Goaltender of the Week, finished with 34 saves on Spokane’s 35 shots. Hart turned away all 19 Chiefs shots in the final period, and the Tips killed all four penalties they drew. Everett has killed 25 straight penalties.

The Tips (12-12-1-1, 26 points) have won two straight and five of their past seven. Spokane (12-9-1-2, 27 points) lost for the second time in its last six contests.

Everett received a goal and an assist each from Sean Richards, Patrick Bajkov and Jake Christiansen. Fonteyne also scored while Everett native Wyatte Wylie finished with a pair of assists.

Spokane beat the Tips 5-4 in Spokane on Oct. 4 as Hart missed the first of a dozen games due to mononucleosis. But that Chiefs team was without star forward Kailer Yamamoto and hadn’t yet acquired high-scoring overage forward Zach Fischer from the Medicine Hat Tigers.

“They’re very skilled, they’re big and they can skate well and they’re not a team to take lightly by any means,” Everett head coach Dennis Williams said. “You know when they’re out there and we have to remind our centermen, remind our (defensemen) every time, especially off a faceoff play just to give them a quick reminder there.”

Despite a sluggish opening period, the Tips took a 1-0 lead and never trailed en route to the three-goal victory.

“By the looks of our first period they probably ate quite a bit yesterday,” Williams said. “We had to be a lot better than what we brought and let that be our wake-up call. And obviously Carter did a great job in the first (period), bailing us out there. We got those two goals in the second and I thought after that we did a pretty good job.”

It was in the second period that the Tips took control as they twice found the net on the power play to turn a 1-0 lead into a 3-1 advantage.

The first came at 1:53 when Fonteyne’s wrister from the left circle fooled Dawson Weatherill at 1:53 for a 2-0 lead.

Spokane answered on the next shift following an Everett turnover when Jeff Faith fed Milos Fafrak on the rush to make it 2-1 at 2:14.

But Christiansen pushed the advantage back to two at 3-1 when he scored through Weatherill’s legs off a feed across the slot from Bryce Kindopp at 18:15, and Everett took a 3-1 lead into the second period.

It was Christiansen’s first goal of the season.

“It feels good to get that off my back,” Christiansen said. “I saw it was a two-on-one, so I joined the play and Kindopp gave me a very nice pass. I just tried to get it off as quick as possible because I saw (Weatherill) coming across.”

Bajkov’s third-period empty-netter sealed the victory at 17:52.

Everett took the 1-0 lead on its third shot of the night. Bajkov controlled the puck behind the net and drew the Spokane defense toward him, waited for linemate Richards to skate into the slot and fed him the puck. Richards’ quick wrister beat Weatherill for the lead at 10:21.

Though Everett led after 20 minutes, it was Spokane that dominated the opening period in terms of possession and shots.

“They definitely made a push on us and we weren’t ready for that,” Fonteyne said. “It’s something we need to work on moving forward, but Hartsy bailed us out there like he usually does, so that was good.”

Weatherill finished with 25 saves for Spokane.

The Tips play host to the Vancouver Giants at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Xfinity Arena. It will be their seventh game in the past 11 days, but the Tips don’t play again until Friday at Kamloops.

Notes: The Silvertips announced Friday they have traded goaltender Dorrin Luding to the Seattle Thunderbirds for a ninth-round pick in the 2019 draft.

Silvertips 4, Chiefs 1

Spokane 0 1 0 — 1

Everett 1 2 1 — 4

1st Period—1, Everett, Richards 10 (Bajkov), 10:21. Penalties—Fasko-Rudas Evt (high sticking), 11:44; Toporowski Spo (hooking), 16:06.

2nd Period—2, Everett, Fonteyne 11 (Christiansen, Wylie), 1:53 (PP). 3, Spokane, Fafrak 2 (Faith, McKay), 2:14. 4, Everett, Christiansen 1 (Kindopp, Sutter), 18:15 (PP). Penalties—Fischer Spo (tripping), 0:34; Helgesen Spo (slashing), 7:29; McIndoe Spo (cross checking), 16:35.

3rd Period—5, Everett, Bajkov 13 (Wylie, Richards), 17:52 (EN). Penalties—Walker Evt (delay of game), 6:10; Bajkov Evt (hooking), 10:37; Elynuik Spo (slashing), 12:56; Fischer Spo (roughing), 12:56; Richards Evt (roughing), 12:56; Onyebuchi Evt (high sticking), 18:31.

Shots on Goal—Spokane 11-5-19-35. Everett 8-10-11-29.

Power Play Opportunities—Spokane 0 / 4; Everett 2 / 5.

Goalies—Spokane, Weatherill 10-7-1-2 (28 shots-25 saves). Everett, Hart 7-3-0-1 (35 shots-34 saves).

A—4,381

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