EVERETT – One of the Everett Silvertips’ stated goals during the regular season was to earn some form of home-ice advantage for the playoffs. They accomplished that by finishing first in the WHL’s U.S. Division.
Then two games into their opening-round series against Tri-City they coughed it up.
With the series moving to the Toyota Center in Kennewick tonight, Everett is looking to get that home-ice advantage back.
“I guess you could look at it as a best-of-five now,” Everett goaltender Leland Irving said. “We’re looking towards the next game and we’ll do our best to come out on top.”
Everett and Tri-City split the first two games of the series at the Everett Events Center, with Everett winning 4-0 in Game 1 and Tri-City prevailing 2-1 in Game 2. Therefore, Everett will have to win at least one game in Kennewick to secure the best-of-seven series.
However, while the Americans believed they needed to win one of the first two games to have a chance in the series, the Tips seemed unconcerned with losing the home-ice advantage they fought so hard for during the regular season.
“I don’t really care much about that,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “It’s seven games. The first team to four wins the series. Other than that you just go play hockey. That’s not very material to us.”
There’s no reason for Everett to panic yet. The Tips had their share of success at Tri-City this season, winning two of their five meetings at the Toyota Center. The last time Everett played in Kennewick on Feb. 26 the Tips were in complete control in a 3-0 victory.
“It’s never nice to lose home-ice advantage, but playoffs are about winning at home and winning on the road,” Everett left wing John Lammers said. “That’s what you’ve got to do. We’re going to face adversity and you can’t get too high or too low. We have to stay on an even keel and work through all the little things.”
If any team should know how to survive without home-ice advantage, it’s Everett. Their first two seasons the Tips won three playoff series without having home-ice advantage, including last season’s dramatic seven-game first-round series against Portland. In the only two series losses in franchise history, home-ice advantage didn’t even come into play because they were both over in four games.
And Everett isn’t alone. Of the eight first-round playoff series, six split the opening two games.
“If you’re going to win the league and go to the Memorial Cup, you’re going to have to win in other teams’ rinks,” Everett captain Torrie Wheat said. “It’s unlikely if we make it past this round we’ll have home ice in the second, so for the rest of the playoffs we’d have to win in other teams’ buildings. So it’s not a big deal, it’s just something we have to figure out and be able to do.”
Flu bug persists: The flu that’s plagued the Tips since the start of the playoffs continues to cycle its way through the team, and it’s likely that bug will affect Everett’s lineup again tonight.
“It’s not really pretty,” Constantine said. “For some guys it kind of broke, but a couple other guys just got it in the last two days.”
The good news for Everett is two players who missed Saturday’s game because of the flu – defenseman Shaun Heshka and right wing Brady Calla – were well enough to practice Monday. They could return tonight.
However, the latest player stricken was defenseman Jonathan Harty, who along with holdover Ondrej Fiala was unable to practice Monday.
Beach trip?: Perhaps the Tips will get a look at Kyle Beach in the playoffs after all.
Beach, Everett’s first-round pick in the 2005 Bantam Draft, is scheduled to join the team today in Kennewick and could dress for either Game 3 or Game 4.
Beach’s midget team, the Okanagan Rockets, won the British Columbia Major Midget League and advanced to face the Alberta champions at the Telus Cup Regionals. Beach is ineligible to join the Tips full time until his midget season is over.
However, because the Telus Cup Regionals aren’t until Apr. 7-9, Beach has some free time – and he also has one game remaining of the five games 15-year-olds are allowed to play in the WHL. He had two goals and an assist in his previous four games with Everett.
“He might play,” Constantine said. “His midget team has the week off and he still has one game of eligibility left. He’s going to join us there, but we really don’t know if he’s going to play or not.”
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