EVERETT — It’s gotten to the point where even when everything breaks in the Everett Silvertips’ favor, they still can’t find the win column.
Brendan Shinnimin scored the tiebreaking goal with less than two minutes remaining, and the Silvertips suffered a heartbreaker in a 5-4 loss to the Tri-City Americans on Friday night at Comcast Arena.
For much of the game, it appeared the stars had aligned for Everett. Especially when the Tips, who fell behind after going ahead 2-0, battled back to take a 4-3 lead midway through the third period. However, it wasn’t to be for Everett as Jarrett Toll scored the tying goal with 8:32 remaining. Then Shinnimin cut diagonally while skating into the zone two-on-two and crossed up Everett goaltender Kent Simpson with a shot, winning it for the Americans.
“We had some luck going our way early and we played hard,” Everett coach John Becanic said. “We were the more physical team. We made mistakes that the average fan probably didn’t realize were mistakes, but those are the ones that led to goals. The guys showed a lot of resiliency to come back.”
Taylor Procyshen, Jason Reese and Mitch Fadden also scored and Chet Pickard made 28 saves in goal for Tri-City (45-16-0-3), which won its seventh straight.
Kellan Tochkin scored twice, Shane Harper and Taylor Ellington also scored for Everett (25-30-7-2), which lost its fourth straight. Simpson finished with 27 saves in a rough night for him.
Everett received help from every possible avenue. The Tips got help from referee Matt Kirk, who gave the Tips an 11-3 advantage in power plays, including the game’s first seven. They got help from the Americans, who took three unnecessary unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Even the hockey gods were on Everett’s side, as two of Everett’s goals came on deflections and Tri-City twice had shots ring off the inside of the post.
All four of Everett’s goals came during those 11 power plays, including goals from Harper and Tochkin 1:13 apart in the third period that gave the Tips their 4-3 lead.
Tri-City coach Don Nachbaur was happy with the way his team overcame the 11 power plays against.
“We’ve overcome other odds, that’s why we’ve only lost 16 games,” Nachbaur said. “We’ve battled all circumstances and found a way, that’s the most important part. I’m not going to talk about penalties, what’s to talk about? A lot of them we deserved, a lot of them we didn’t, in my opinion. And they made good on their chances, they had us running all over the place. We had to kill so many that at times we were exhausted.”
The one thing that didn’t break in Everett’s favor was yet another injury. Already fielding a bare-bones lineup thanks to five injuries, the Tips lost another player when defenseman Trevor Bauer suffered a concussion in the game’s opening minutes when boarded by Spencer Asuchak.
Despite the dwindling number of bodies available, Becanic did not think the Tips wore down in the third period.
“We weren’t worn down at all,” Becanic said. “I thought we showed a lot of resilience because when they scored those two and we went down, in games past we got blown out. Our guys stuck to it and were very energetic and emotional and positive on the bench, and as a result we scored two more goals. I don’t think we ran out of gas at all.”
Everett took advantage of its early power plays to lead 2-1 going into the third period. However, the Americans began a wild six-goal third period with two goals in 52 seconds early in the period. Reese scored on a two-on-one, putting in his own rebound off the crossbar, to make it 2-2 at 2:59. Then at 3:51 Fadden’s one-timer from the left circle beat Simpson to the near post to give the Americans the lead.
But Everett didn’t fold and regained the lead. Tochkin tied it with his second goal of the game at 6:40 when his centering pass deflected off traffic and under Pickard. Then Harper gave the Tips the lead at 7:53, putting in a rebound after Pickard spilled Byron Froese’s shot.
Toll re-tied it at 11:28 when his wrister from the top of the circle beat Simpson glove side just as a Tri-City power play ended.
Americans 5, Silvertips 4
Tri-City014— 5
Everett202—4
First Period — 1, Everett, Ellington 5 (Iwanski, Dailey), 4:03 (pp). 2, Everett, Tochkin 17 (Alexander, Harper), 19:11 (pp). Penalties — Asuchak, Tri-City (boarding), 2:21; Reese, Tri-City (elbowing-roughing), 14:16; Schmidt, Tri-City (slashing), 15:56; Procyshen, Tri-City (cross checking), 16:07; Froese, Everett (slashing), 16:07; Schmidt, Tri-City (interference-unsportsmanlike conduct), 18:51.
Second Period — 3, Tri-City, Procyshen 35 (Toll, Pickard), 6:28. Penalties — Hughesman, Tri-City (interference), 2:33; Reese, Tri-City (unsportsmanlike conduct), 9:25; McCrea, Everett (holding), 11:58; Hughesman, Tri-City (goaltender interference), 12:55; Potuer, Everett (hooking), 16:00.
Third Period — 4, Tri-City, Reese 30 (Procyshen, Reddick), 2:59. 5, Tri-City, Fadden 33 (Feser), 3:51. 6, Everett, Harper 29 (Froese), 6:40 (pp). 7, Everett, Tochkin 18 (Froese, Harper), 7:53 (pp). 8, Tri-City, Toll 8 (Fadden), 11:28. 9, Tri-City, Shinnimin 10 (Reese, Macek), 18:02. Penalties — Fadden, Tri-City (unsportsmanlike conduct), 5:38; Schmidt, Tri-City (tripping), 6:56; Abney, Everett (interference), 9:28; Plouffe, Tri-City (hooking), 15:32.
Shots on goal — Tri-City 10-12-10 — 32. Everett 13-7-12 — 32. Power-play opportunities — Tri-City 0 of 3. Everett 4 of 11.
Goalies — Tri-City, Pickard 34-12-0-3 (32 shots, 28 saves). Everett, Simpson 8-10-3-1 (32 shots, 27 saves).
A — 7,154.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
