There’s goals in them thar Silvertips

EVERETT — Who are these guys? And what have they done with the Everett Silvertips?

Style, panache, and goals galore, this isn’t what the Silvertips have been about so far this season. But Everett hopes this brand of Silvertip hangs around for a while.

Everett scored a season-high six goals Wednesday night, and the Silvertips won their fourth game in their last five, defeating the Prince Albert Raiders 6-2 in Western Hockey League action at the Everett Events Center.

John Dahl had two goals and an assist, including a goal just 12 seconds into the game, and Riley Armstrong added a goal and three assists for the Silvertips (4-5-1).

"We’ve been working hard in practice, emphasizing putting more points on the board," said Dahl, who leads the team with five goals. "We’ve been working hard at it, so sooner or later it was going to happen. Everyone came through tonight and it showed."

Devin Welsh, Torrie Wheat and Jeff Schmidt also scored for Everett and goalie Jeff Harvey made 27 saves to improve to 3-4.

So are these the new-look Silvertips, the ones known for their offensive prowess rather than their defensive determination?

"I think it’s a little premature to say that," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "I think we’ll score more than we did in the first nine games on average, but I’m not sure you’ll see six every night."

For a team that had scored just 13 goals in nine games and hadn’t scored more than twice in any of those games, Wednesday’s offensive output — against the first-place team in the East Division no less — was something of a shock. However, it’s also something the Silvertips felt was long overdue.

"I think some guys — even the coaching staff — was getting, ‘Holy, only two goals a game?’ " Armstrong said. "Then we finally snapped out of it and scored six. I was expecting six goals in our home opener, so we’ve just got to build off this game momentum-wise and build from there."

Everett shelled Prince Albert goalie Brant Hilton, who didn’t last to the end of the game. The Silvertips scored five goals against Hilton before the 17-year-old, making his first appearance of the season, was pulled at 10:28 of the second period.

"I felt bad for Brant," Prince Albert coach Peter Anholt said. "We didn’t give him much help up front and in defensive zone coverage. He’s a young kid and a talented kid and he’ll have to bounce back."

But Anholt said he wasn’t surprised by Everett’s outburst.

"They’re a hard-working team," Anholt said. "We heard they were having trouble scoring goals early, but when a team works hard it pays off eventually. They made it tough on our defense. I don’t think we were caught off guard because we lost last night (2-0 against Kelowna). I just think we didn’t work hard enough."

Jeremy Colliton and Aki Seitsonen scored for Prince Albert.

Everett set the tone in the opening seconds. The Silvertips won the opening faceoff and traded passes across the ice, leading to an open opportunity for Armstrong. Hilton saved Armstrong’s shot, but Dahl was there to shovel in the rebound to give Everett a dream start.

The teams traded goals and ended the first period tied 2-2. Everett scored three goals in seven minutes in the second period to take control. First, Armstrong scored a power-play goal at 3:56, wristing a shot into Hilton’s upper-left corner to give Everett the lead. Then, on Everett’s best move of the game, pinpoint passes from Devin Wilson and Schmidt on the breakout resulted in Wheat’s one-timer from in front at 5:17. Dahl scored his second goal at 10:28. Barry Horman’s centering pass from the left was a little too far in front of Armstrong, but Dahl was charging in from the right and scored to give the Silvertips a commanding 5-2 lead.

Slap shots: For Welsh and Schmidt, it was their first goals of the season. … Chad Bassen, the 20-year-old forward who is Everett’s newest acquisition, suited up Wednesday. He endeared himself to the fans by getting into a fight with 26.4 seconds remaining in the game … . Prince Albert has produced two players who were picked first overall in the NHL Draft in the last 15 years. Forward Mike Modano was selected by the Minnesota North Stars in 1988 and defenseman Chris Phillips was selected by the Ottawa Senators in 1996.

Silvertips 6, Raiders 2 Prince Albert 2 0 0—2 Everett 2 3 1—6 First Period—1, Everett, Dahl 4 (Armstrong, Horman), 0:12. 2, Prince Albert, Colliton 6 (Chipchura), 6:28 (sh). 3, Everett, Welsh 1 (Desloges, Jacobson), 9:58. 4, Prince Albert, Seitsonen (Pearpoint, Ardelan), 19:53. Second Period—5, Everett, Armstrong 2 (Matic), 3:56 (pp). 6, Everett, Wheat 2 (Schmidt, Wilson), 5:17. 7, Everett, Dahl 5 (Armstrong, Horman), 10:28. Third Period—8, Everett, Schmidt 1 (Armstrong, Dahl), 9:56. Shots on goal—Prince Albert 10-10-9—29. Everett 6-13-1—20. Power-play opportunities—Prince Albert 0 of 3. Everett 1 of 2. Goalies—Prince Albert, Hilton 0-1 (14 shots, 9 saves), Beauchemin (6 shots, 5 saves). Everett, Harvey 3-4 (29 shots, 27 saves).