EVERETT — In playoff hockey, the margin between winning and losing is often thinner than a skate blade. It did not take long for the Everett Silvertips to get a reminder, as the Western Conference’s top seed lost Game 1 of the WHL Playoffs First Round 3-2 to the eighth-seed Seattle Thunderbirds at Angel of the Winds Arena on Friday.
Final: Seattle wins 3-2
After pulling LeGall for the extra attacker with ~1:30 left, Everett puts a relentless assault on the offensive end, but Scott Ratzlaff (45 saves) stands tall to hold them off, and the 8th-seed Thunderbirds steal Game 1.@HeraldNetSports
— Joe Pohoryles (@Joe_Poho) March 29, 2025
With Everett trailing 2-1 early in the second period, Silvertips forward Julius Miettinen threaded a perfect cross-crease pass to Jesse Heslop on the right post. Seattle goalie Scott Ratzlaff sealed off any opening and robbed Heslop of a chance to tie it from point-blank range.
Moments later at the other end of the ice, Thunderbirds winger Simon Lovsin scored from the slot to put Seattle ahead 3-1 at 1:54 of the second period. Even with plenty of time left, that sequence marked a major shift.
“Obviously, it’ll swing things a lot, but I think the biggest part is you got to stick to the process and keep your head in it,” Silvertips defenseman Tarin Smith said. “It’s hard not to ride the emotional ups and downs, but in the end you have to. It’s a long series. It happens. It’s one game, so we’ll move on from it.”
#WHL Scott Ratzlaff highlight reel save at one end, Simon Lovsin quick reaction at the other.
Seattle extends their lead to 3-1 and they are buzzing 👀 pic.twitter.com/KnLCDkSRDU
— Cameron Riggers (@CameronRiggers) March 29, 2025
The Thunderbirds continued pushing until Everett found more urgency that carried into the third. The Silvertips peppered Seattle with 19 shots on goal in the final frame to total 47, but Ratzlaff was a brick wall, earning First Star of the Game with 45 saves and helping the Thunderbirds take the first game of the best-of-seven series.
Seattle forward Hayden Pakkala led the scoring with one goal and one assist, while Everett defenseman Landon DuPont assisted on both Silvertips goals in his WHL playoff debut. Raiden LeGall made 31 saves for Everett in the loss.
Silvertips coach Steve Hamilton liked the resolve he saw from his group in the third following a “vanilla” first 40 minutes, but emphasized the need for more in Game 2.
“We weren’t prepared to go and do exactly what needed to be done,” Hamilton said. “I mean, it wasn’t that we played horrible, we just played ‘just okay,’ and finally got some urgency, and I thought that helped us to tilt the ice a little bit in the third and put some pressure on them, so we’re going to need more of that tomorrow.”
Each team scored on a heads-up rebound to open the game. First, the Thunderbirds took advantage of an early Eric Jamieson penalty, with Pakkala scoring a power-play goal off a rebound just 3:41 into the game to make it 1-0.
Silvertips forward Shea Busch tied it 1-1 at 8:46, rebounding DuPont’s shot from the right point that Austin Roest redirected on net.
That tie only lasted for 1:19, until Thunderbirds forward Brayden Holberton regained the lead for Seattle with a quick shot off an offensive zone faceoff from the right side to make it 2-1 at 10:05.
After Seattle swung their 3-1 lead and kept pushing the Silvertips on their heels through the second period, Everett finally caught a break at 7:50 of the third when Thunderbirds defenseman Vanek Popil was penalized for roughing, and Smith cut it to 3-2 with a point shot through traffic on the power play at 8:15.
While tensions flared between whistles the whole game, things boiled over at 11:10 when Silvertips forward Clarke Schaefer boarded Seattle forward Brayden Schuurman along the right side, which prompted defenseman Ashton Cumby to charge Schaefer in defense of his teammate. The two dropped their gloves and grappled as the Angel of the Winds Arena crowd roared.
Both players were assessed five-minute fighting penalties, while Cumby received a 10-minute game misconduct. Schaefer swept his arms up to urge the crowd for energy while skating to the bench.
“I threw a hit on a guy. (Cumby) didn’t like it, so he came at me,” Schaefer said. “I had to answer it, so it’s good energy for our team, too. Got us going. … It’s obviously a momentum-shifter. There’s a time and place for it.”
It appeared Schaefer picked the right time, as the Silvertips urgently pushed for a tying goal down the stretch. When LeGall went to the bench for an extra attacker with around 90 seconds left, Everett kept the puck in Seattle’s zone nearly the entire time. They unleashed an assault on Ratzlaff, but the 20-year-old netminder answered each time to hold on for the win.
“We had some pretty good chances and didn’t convert,” Hamilton said. “I thought they (Seattle) made the most of the ones they had.”
With home-ice advantage out the window, the Silvertips have less than 24 hours to figure out how to be better prepared for the Thunderbirds in Game 2 — which returns to Angel of the Winds Arena on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. PT — before the series shifts to Seattle.
“It’s going to be a physical, hard-earned series,” Schaefer said. “Just because these guys are the eighth-seed, they’ve been playing playoff hockey, basically, for the last month, scratching to get into the playoffs.”
Hamilton said he already made a decision for the Game 2 goalie starter between LeGall and Jesse Sanche — who started 35 games this season and at one point led the WHL in save percentage and goals-against average before his play started to tail off — but he declined to announce who it will be.
Regardless of who protects the net for Everett, the postseason acclimation period is over. Otherwise, the Silvertips will head to enemy territory for Game 3 on Tuesday in quite a hole.
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