EVERETT – Kevin Constantine couldn’t remember ever seeing anything like it.
Alex Leavitt called it, “probably one of the most exciting games I’ve been a part of in my whole hockey career.”
Last Saturday the Spokane Arena played witness to one of the most thrilling finishes the Western Hockey League has seen this year.
On the scoresheet, the 3-3 tie between the Everett Silvertips and Spokane Chiefs seems rather innocuous. But with three goals scored in the last five minutes – all with Everett goaltender Leland Irving on the bench – and the final two by Leavitt and Torrie Wheat giving the Silvertips an improbable comeback, this one instantly became a classic.
“I’ve played in league finals and won overtime games, but this was just so unexpected,” Leavitt said. “It was kind of like a storybook ending.”
Here’s the anatomy of a wild finish.
* 4:33 remaining: Everett, trailing 2-1, pulls Irving.
Constantine proved last year he wasn’t afraid to gamble, pulling his goalie with as much as three minutes remaining in regulation, which is considerably earlier than average. But with Everett having 27 seconds remaining on a power play, Constantine sent on the extra attacker earlier than he ever had since taking over the Silvertips.
“The first time we pulled (Irving) it was done to try to take advantage of the momentum of a power play,” Constantine explained. “If there hadn’t been a power play we probably would have waited to pull him until later, so it was just unusual circumstances.”
The early pulling of the goalie may have raised a few eyebrows in the crowd. But Everett’s coaches have won the respect of the players such that when Irving was summoned back to the bench, there was little surprise and no objection from the team.
“I knew K.C. knew what he was doing,” Irving said. “He’s been around a long time, we were down a goal and we had a chance on the power play to get a goal, so we were just trying to take advantage of that.”
* 4:06: Spokane’s Jeff Lynch scores into the empty net, giving the Chiefs a 3-1 lead.
Everett’s power play had just ended when Lynch got the puck into the clear and scored into the empty net, seemingly putting the game out of reach.
“At that point I didn’t think we had much of a chance,” said Irving, who returned to the ice after the goal.
But while it would have been easy to fold at that point, the Silvertips continued to press forward.
“I think I played the last three-and-a-half minutes straight, so I can’t even tell you what the mindset was,” Leavitt said. “But it’s been ingrained in everyone’s mentality here to never quit and keep going 100 percent.”
* 3:11: Irving returns to the bench after a faceoff in the Spokane zone.
Everett refused to give up, despite trailing by two.
“The strategy to pull (Irving) with four minutes left was a gamble because we still had some time to score five-on-five,” Constantine said. “But once we went down 3-1 it was like, ‘Well, now we might as well go for it.’”
* 2:42: Leavitt scores, cutting the lead to 3-2 and giving Everett hope.
Spokane won a faceoff in its own end, but the Tips held the puck in the zone. Leavitt passed to Ivan Baranka at the left point, Baranka moved it to Cody Thoring at the right point, Thoring sent it down low to Tyler Dietrich and Dietrich threw it at the net. The puck trickled through to the back door, where Leavitt was on hand to put it into the open net.
Most importantly, Everett scored with plenty of time remaining on the clock.
“You have to score quickly,” Constantine said. “That’s why you pull the goalie early because you can’t score that goal with five seconds left and expect to win. You have to score that goal with more than a minute to play. That gave us a chance to get another faceoff in their end and pull the goalie again.”
* 2:13: Irving is pulled for the third time.
Irving got plenty of skating practice last Saturday.
* 0:36.8: Wheat scores, tying it up at 3-3.
Leavitt won a faceoff back to Mitch Love at the point. Love’s shot was blocked in front, but it bounced to Dietrich in the high slot. Dietrich’s shot was saved, but the Silvertips whacked away with the rebound eventually coming to Wheat, who scored to set off a wild Silvertips celebration.
“I think we were spending our last ounce of energy on our celebration,” Leavitt said with a laugh. “If I could go back in time I wouldn’t have celebrated as much because I had no legs in overtime. But obviously we were super excited.”
Said Constantine: “It’s actually fun to watch it on tape because the bench had as big a celebration as I’ve seen all year when that goal went in. The odds of doing something like that are not very good, so when you do it’s kind of fun. Our bench was really up at that moment.”
Everett couldn’t quite put the finishing touch on the comeback, though the Tips had several good scoring chances in overtime. But that couldn’t take the luster off their achievement.
“It really would have been great if we had won the game in overtime,” Leavitt said. “We had a couple really good chances to make the comeback complete. But we got the tie, so I think everyone was pretty happy.”
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