EVERETT — Just one week now remains in the Western Hockey League season, and the Everett Silvertips’ playoff lives hang precariously in the balance.
And the Tips can no longer count upon the support of the boisterous Comcast Arena crowds.
Everett put up a good resistance against the W
estern Conference-leading Portland Winterhawks in its final home game of the regular season, but the Tips again fell short, succumbing 2-1 before a sellout crowd of 8,423.
Brendan Leipsic snapped a 1-1 tie midway through the third period to give Portland a sweep of the weekend twin-bill in Ev
erett. The Winterhawks beat the Tips 6-3 Friday night.
Everett played right with the Winterhawks throughout, outshooting Portland 37-32 despite adding captain Landon Ferraro and overage defenseman Chad Suer to the list of walking wounded. However, as has been the case throughout the season, the Tips just didn’t have the ability to put the puck in the net. This was most evident late in the second period, when Everett had a lengthy five-on-three power play with the score tied 1-1, but was unable to make life difficult for Portland goaltender Keith Hamilton.
“I thought our kids played their hearts out,” Everett coach Craig Hartsburg said. “(Portland) is a really good team, and I think we deserved better tonight. (Friday) night we self destructed in five minutes. Tonight I think we deserved a lot better fate. Our kids worked and followed the program. We’re just an offensively-challenged team, but it’s not for lack of trying. We tried like heck, it wasn’t meant to be tonight.”
On the winning goal, Everett had a chance to clear the zone, but failed to get the puck out. That led to trouble as a goalmouth scramble ensued after Riley Boychuk put a pass out front. In the scramble Leipsic’s effort bounced over Everett netmider Luke Siemens and into the net, snapping the 1-1 tie at 8 minutes, 51 seconds of the third.
Nino Niederreiter also scored for Portland (47-18-0-3), which maintained a one-point lead over Spokane for first place in the conference. Hamilton finished with 36 saves in net for the Winterhawks.
“I didn’t think we were near as sharp as (Friday) night, and I give (the Tips) some credit for how they played,” Portland coach Mike Johnston said. “They played with a lot of effort, a lot of intensity to the game. It basically was a 2-1 game — maybe you could even say it should have been a 1-1 game. It was a hard battle.
“Spokane has stayed with us all this half,” Johnston added. “It’s probably going to come down to the wire and you can’t lose games. But I think the most-important thing coming in here is we treated this like a playoff series. I thought we handled the crowd both nights, and we handled things well.”
Parker Stanfield scored the lone goal for Everett and Siemens stopped 30 shots in goal for the Tips (27-30-7-4), who dropped their seventh straight.
It’s an inconvenient time for a losing streak. Saturday’s loss, combined with Prince George’s 5-1 victory at Seattle, dropped the Tips into eighth place in the conference standings. Eight teams advance to the playoffs.
Everett still has a two-point advantage on ninth-place Kamloops with two games in hand, and the Tips lead 10th-place Seattle by four points with both teams having four games remaining. However, all four of Everett’s remaining games are on the road.
“If we play like we did tonight I don’t think we’ll have any problem winning those games,” said Tips defenseman Ryan Murray, who again stood in for Ferraro as captain. “We’ll have to do it on the road, which is going to be a little bit of adversity, but I think we can handle it.”
The Tips are hoping they get some of their injured crew back for the final run-in. Ferraro, who just returned from sitting out five weeks recovering from hernia surgery, was scratched with a groin injury. Suer, who missed a large chunk of time earlier this season with a broken jaw, sat out because of a cut on his leg. Those two joined No. 1 goaltender Kent Simpson, who’s been out with a sprained ankle, on the sidelines.
Hartsburg said Ferraro could recover in time for Wednesday’s game at Tri-City. Suer has to wait until the swelling goes down in his leg. Simpson is still being evaluated on a game-by-game basis.
Portland was handed an early power play, and the Winterhawks cashed in at 3:42 to take an early 1-0 lead. Ryan Johansen’s shot from the left circle was saved into the slot, where Niederreiter outfought a defender to put in the rebound.
The Winterhawks got into penalty trouble in the second period, and the Tips tied it up with a power-play goal of their own at 3:01. Brennan Yadlowski’s wrister from the top of the left circle deflected off Stanfield into the far corner, knotting it at 1-1.
Winterhawks 2, Silvertips 1
Portland 1 0 1 — 2
Everett 0 1 0 — 1
First Period–1, Portland, Niederreiter 38 (Johansen, Rutkowski), 3:42 (pp). Penalties–Stanfield, Everett (tripping), 1:56; Leipsic, Portland (interference), 10:55; Rattie, Portland (slashing-roughing), 15:57; Harrison, Everett (roughing), 15:57; Birkholz, Everett (hooking), 19:57.
Second Period–2, Everett, Stanfield 13 (Yadlowski, Murray), 3:01 (pp). Penalties–Bartschi, Portland (boarding), 2:47; Niederreiter, Portland (interference), 9:27; Aronson, Portland (kneeing), 14:39; Wotherspoon, Portland (delay of game), 15:15.
Third Period–3, Portland, Leipsic 16 (Boychuk, Morrow), 8:51. Penalties–none.
Shots on goal–Portland 15-8-9–32. Everett 8-16-12–37. Power-play opportunities–Portland 1 of 2. Everett 1 of 6.
Goalies–Portland, Hamilton 15-5-0-2 (37 shots, 36 saves). Everett, Siemens 6-10-2-0 (32 shots, 30 saves).
A–8,423.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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