Three observations from the Tips’ 3-2 victory in Game 1

The Silvertips celebrate from Everett Herald on Vimeo.

Here’s three observations following the Everett Silvertips’ 3-2 victory over the Tri-City Americans in Game 1 of their best-of-seven WHL Western Conference championship series on Friday night at Angel of the Winds Arena. These observations are more about the long-term prospects of the series rather than the game itself:

1) It looks as though the Sutter-Dewar-Pilon line will be asked to do the heavy lifting again for Everett.

In the second round of the playoffs Everett’s line of center Riley Sutter, left wing Connor Dewar and right wing Garrett Pilon was given the difficult assignment of containing Portland’s dynamic trio of Cody Glass, Kieffer Bellows and Skyler McKenzie. Glass, Bellows and McKenzie are all NHL draft picks — Glass and Bellows being first rounders — and they terrorized opposing defenses all season long. But the Sutter line shut the Glass line down, as Everett’s trio outscored Portland’s trio 17-8 and was a collective plus-17 to Portland’s minus-18. It’s the main reason why the Tips won the series in five games.

Well, those three drew the tough assignment again Friday in Game 1 against Tri-City. The Americans’ duo of Morgan Geekie and Michael Rasmussen was the most productive of the first two rounds of the playoffs, combining for an astonishing 48 points in eight contests. While Everett coach Dennis Williams wasn’t 100-percent religious about having the Sutter line out against Geekie and Rasmussen on Friday, it was at least 80 percent of the time.

So how did they do? Well, Sutter, Dewar and Pilon combined for six points and a plus-8 rating, while Geekie and Rasmussen were a combined minus-4, though they each scored a goal on the power play. Everett won the matchup Friday, and if the Tips can keep getting the matchup they want and winning it, they have an excellent shot at winning the series.

2) Everett needs to stay out of the penalty box.

Speaking of those power-play goals …

Tri-City finished 2-for-3 on the power play. Granted, one of those goals was an absolute gift as a bad giveaway by Everett goaltender Carter Hart handed Rasmussen one on a platter. But it shows just how dangerous the Americans’ power play can be.

Tri-City’s No. 1 power-play unit is stacked, as it contains a first-round NHL draft pick in Rasmussen, a pair of first-round NHL draft picks at the point in defensemen Jake Bean and Juuso Valimaki, a third-round NHL draft pick in Geekie and a point-a-game-plus overager in Jordan Topping. Their ability on craft a power play was exhibited on the Americans’ first goal, as Bean carried the puck deep into the Everett zone and put a pass out front, where Geekie got rid of a wrister in an instant to beat Hart.

Those two power-play tallies increased Tri-City’s power-play efficiency in the playoffs to an astounding 50 percent. With the Americans getting the job done like that with the man advantage, Everett needs to make sure it minimizes Tri-City’s opportunities.

3) If the series goes long, it will be interesting to see how fatigue affects each team.

Watching how this game played out made for fascinating observations of player management.

If the series becomes a special-teams series, Everett is the team that could run into fatigue trouble. That’s because the Tips use all their top players on both the power play and the penalty kill. And Everett doesn’t run many bodies out on the penalty kill, sticking to just four forwards (Dewar, Pilon, Matt Fonteyne, Patrick Bajkov) and four defensemen (Kevin Davis, Ondrej Vala, Wyatte Wylie, Jake Christensen). The four forwards and Davis are Everett’s top power-play unit, while Wylie and Christensen are on the second unit, so if there’s too much special teams the Tips could blow out their key players.

However, if the series becomes a tightly-contested even-strength series, it could be Tri-City that wears down. The Americans trailed 3-2 going into the third period, and in the third they essentially cut back to three-and-a-half defensemen as they chased a tying goal. Bean, Valimaki and Dylan Coghlan were on the ice constantly in the third, with either Dan Gatenby or Roman Kalinichenko taking the occasional half shift. For example, Valimaki and Coghlan were on the ice for an extremely long shift just before the timeout, then Coghlan came out for the shift right after the timeout was over.

Both these teams came into the series well rested after winning their first two series quickly, so fatigue shouldn’t be a factor early on. But if the series gets to games six and seven it will be interesting to see which team is able to remain fresher.