Tips come up short

SEATTLE — There’s a reason why the Kelowna Rockets are the top-ranked team in the Western Hockey League, a reason the Everett Silvertips became all too familiar with Friday night.

Kelowna put on a clinic of defensive hockey and defeated the Silvertips 1-0 before a crowd of 5,252 at the Everett Events Center.

"They’re just so consistent defensively in every game they play," said Everett coach Kevin Constantine, who called Kelowna the best team the Silvertips have played this season.

"Other teams might have a little more offensively, but nobody has the total package that this team has."

In a hard-hitting contest that featured 21 penalties, the Silvertips (10-10-3-1) found themselves stuck in their own end most of the way. On the rare occasions when the Tips were able to get the puck into the offensive zone, Kelowna made sure it didn’t stay there long.

"We thought we accomplished what we wanted to do," Kelowna coach Marc Habscheid said. "We didn’t want to give them too much, and then we managed to get one and snuck it out.

"I just thought we played as a group, worked hard and didn’t allow them a lot of room."

Kelowna showed exactly why the Rockets are the top-ranked team in the Western Major Junior Hockey Writers Association poll. The Rockets (18-8-2) held the Tips to just 13 shots on goal, few of which caused any concern to Kelowna goalie Kelly Guard. Even on the power play Everett rarely was able to set up in Kelowna’s zone.

Meanwhile, the Rockets turned the Everett goal into a shooting gallery for two periods before falling back into a defensive shell in the third — 23 of Kelowna’s 25 shots came in the first two periods. If not for an series of stunning saves by Everett goalie Jeff Harvey — who was named the first star of the game despite taking the loss — the margin would have been a lot worse.

"That’s the way they play all the time, they spend a lot of time in your end and then you finally do get it in their end, they don’t make mistakes," Constantine said.

"It’s hard to say (how well we played)," Constantine added. "I don’t know if anyone comes away from playing Kelowna thinking they played their best game. They’re just too good defensively."

It looked like Kelowna had taken the lead at 14 minutes, 15 seconds of the first period. Michal Blanar scooped a backhand shot toward goal from up top, and Simon Ferguson tipped it under Harvey and into the net. However, the goal was waved off when Ferguson was judged to have been inside the crease.

But there could be no argument when Kelowna took the lead at 10:47 of the second period. Rockets defenseman Darren Deschamps intercepted an attempted clearance at the top of the left circle, immediately rifled a shot through traffic and beat Harvey up high for his first goal of the season.

Everett’s best scoring chances came in the waning moments of the game. But Guard, who now has a league-high seven shutouts, stoned Jeff Schmidt on his wraparound attempt with 2:30 remaining, then kicked away Torrie Wheat’s shot from the slot with a minute left.

Everett has little time to figure out how to unlock the Kelowna defense. The teams turn around and face off again tonight.

"There’s tendencies of their team that you’d like to be able to work against," Constantine said. "We see some patterns in their team. But it’s very hard to come up with anything that can be game-breaking against them."

Slap shots: Everett welcomed back a pair of players from injury Friday. Left wing John Dahl, second on the team in goals with eight, made a quick return from a broken wrist, which kept him out just four games. The 20-year-old Dahl is playing with a cast. Tyler Dietrich also made his long-awaited return to the Silvertips’ lineup. The 19-year-old left wing, who had been out two months with a shoulder injury, was expected to return last week, but his comeback was delayed by illness. Their returns came at an opportune time as leading scorer Chad Bassen, center Mark Kress and defenseman Devin Wilson were all scratched because of illness. … Kelowna defenseman Josh Gorges and forward Randall Gelech safely returned to the lineup after playing for Team WHL in the RE/MAX Canada-Russia Challenge Series on Wednesday and Thursday. The pair flew into Seattle on Friday morning after playing Thursday night in Brandon, Manitoba. Gorges, Kelowna’s captain, also served as captain for Team WHL.