EVERETT – Now that’s the way to erase the memories of a lost weekend.
Coming off a devastating road trip to Prince George, the Everett Silvertips responded in grand fashion Wednesday night, clobbering the Kamloops Blazers 6-0 in a Western Hockey League game.
Zach Hamill scored twice, Mark Kress had a goal and an assist and Michael Wall recorded his second shutout of the season in goal for Everett (6-4-2-1), which buried the ghosts of two ugly losses at Prince George.
“We needed that game like no other,” Kress said. “Coming from PG, not playing well there at all, to get a 6-0 win is a great confidence boost for the team. We’re going to keep it going from here, that’s for sure.”
Before an Everett Events Center crowd of 4,534, Jonathan Harty, Shaun Heshka and Brady Calla also scored for Everett, which set a franchise record for margin of victory. The previous record was five, accomplished twice last season. Harty’s goal was the first of his WHL career.
More importantly, the Silvertips were able to put the previous two games at Prince George, when they were dominated in a 4-1 loss and gave up a two-goal, third-period lead in a 3-2 loss, to rest.
“Everybody’s going to play poorly during the course of a hockey season,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “To me the thing is how you react to that, whether you respond to poor performance. As a team tonight it was good to see them respond.”
With captain Mitch Love providing an emotional spark with his return to the lineup after sitting out the previous six games injured, Everett overwhelmed Kamloops (4-9-1). Kress’ steal and breakaway goal at 17 minutes of the first period gave the Silvertips momentum they never relinquished. Wall needed just 23 saves to record his shutout, with the most difficult saves coming after Everett scored its sixth.
“I thought we were fine until we gave up the breakaway goal at the start,” Kamloops coach Dean Clark said. “That kind of put us back on our heels, and we made another mistake on the second goal. After that we didn’t play very well at all. We weren’t smart at times in the game, got into penalty trouble and the game got a little bit out of control for us.”
Everett, which created little offensively in the first 16 minutes of the game, turned to its defense to take a 1-0 lead at 17:00. The forechecking Kress picked the puck clean off Kamloops defenseman Ray Macias in the neutral zone, raced away on a breakaway and beat Kamloops goalie Michael Maniago to his stick side.
From there it was all Silvertips. Kress helped create Everett’s second goal two minutes later when on the break he pulled a pass back to Harty trailing the play. Harty knocked the puck down with his first touch and slapped a shot into the corner with his second, making it 2-0 at 19:00.
Everett made it 3-0 at 5:19 of the second period on a nice move and wrist shot from the slot by Hamill. Heshka wristed home a shot from the center point on the power play at 9:50 to make it 4-0.
Everett made it 5-0 41 seconds into the third period when, on a five-on-three advantage, Hamill picked up a loose puck and fired it past Maniago from the center slot. Calla finished off the scoring at 7:51, stuffing the puck home at the far post after Curtis Billsten’s steal and pass from the corner.
Slap shots: Kamloops played without 19-year-old right wing Rick Kozak, who is still serving a 15-game suspension for an altercation with Silvertips trainer Bob Hamre when the teams met in Kamloops on Sept. 26. … Constantine was fined $500 by the league for failure to communicate with the media following last Friday’s game at Prince George.
Silvertips 6, Blazers 0
Kamloops000-0
Everett222-6
First Period-1, Everett, Kress 4, 17:00. 2, Everett, Harty 1 (Kress, Wheat), 19:00.
Second Period-3, Everett, Hamill 3 (Blatchford), 5:19. 4, Everett, Heshka 1 (Love, Wheat), 9:50 (pp).
Third Period-5, Everett, Hamill 4, 0:41 (pp). 6, Everett, Calla 2 (Billsten), 7:51.
Shots on goal-Kamloops 8-9-6-23. Everett 6-17-5-28. Power-play opportunities-Kamloops 0 of 3. Everett 2 of 10.
Goalies-Kamloops, Maniago 1-2 (28 shots, 22 saves). Everett, Wall 4-3-2 (23 shots, 23 saves).
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