VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Everett Silvertips are steaming.
The Tips were an angry crew Saturday night when they felt an officiating decision was the deciding factor in their 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Giants.
The score was tied 2-2 with less than three minutes remaining when Everett goaltender Leland Irving caught a shot from the point. However, Irving was forced by the referee to drop the puck, and moments later Vancouver scored the game-winner.
“It’s an awful way to lose a game,” Everett coach John Becanic said. “Whether we deserved to win or not, that’s an awful way to lose it.
“I’d like to see the league’s take on that last goal,” Becanic added. “I don’t understand what Irv’s supposed to do when the guy’s standing right in front of him.
“Officials shouldn’t be a factor in the game, not in a 2-2 game like that.”
Garet Hunt was the scorer of that game-winner, which came with 2 minutes, 36 seconds remaining. Spencer Machacek and Mario Bliznak also scored and Tyson Sexsmith stopped 17 shots for the Giants (9-1-1-1), who controlled play and outshot Everett 36-19.
Zach Hamill and Kyle Beach each had a goal and an assist for Everett (5-6-0-0), which had its four-game winning streak snapped. Irving was sensational in goal, making 33 saves.
It appeared as though the Pacific Coliseum magic might conjure up another result for Everett on Saturday. Many times over the years the Tips have been outplayed in Vancouver only to somehow end up on the winning end of the final score. Saturday’s game had an identical feel as Everett led 2-1 through two periods despite the puck spending almost the whole game in Everett’s zone.
But Bliznak tied it up early in the third on the power play, then the Tips felt the officials came into play.
With the clock winding down and overtime appearing imminent, Irving gloved a shot from the point. Irving and the rest of Everett’s players waited for a whistle to blow the play dead, but the referee told Irving to move the puck instead.
Irving was forced to toss the puck into the corner, with the Giants taking possession as Everett’s players scrambled to get back into position. The resulting sequence finished with Hunt scoring on a rebound.
Irving, who was under pressure from a Vancouver player, felt he shouldn’t have been forced to drop the puck.
“I don’t think so,” Irving answered when asked. “Their first forward in the zone was coming pretty hard, right behind our D. I didn’t have time to set it down and make a play, just to throw it somewhere. That’s how I guide whether I’m going to play a puck or not.
“But the ref told me to play it, and in fear of getting the penalty and putting us down in the last few minutes I did what I thought was best and put it in the corner,” Irving added. “Unfortunately it came back to bite us.”
Even Vancouver coach Don Hay seemed to agree.
“If that was our goalie I would expect him to hold onto the puck,” Hay said.
“But I thought we did a really good job of sticking with it,” Hay added. “We surrounded Irving and kept on the puck and hounding the puck.”
It may have been a tough way for the Tips to lose, but based on the run of play Vancouver was a deserving victor. Everett took five penalties in the game’s first 13 minutes and spent the entire first part of the game on the penalty kill. Although the Giants didn’t score on any of those power plays, the Tips never seemed to recover. Only spectacular play from Irving put Everett in position to reach overtime.
“A lot of penalties in the first period put us back on our heels,” Becanic said. “It takes a lot of your energy killing penalties and I thought we lost a lot of our energy in the first period.”
Slap shots: Everett played without captain Jonathan Harty. He was out with a hip injury sustained the previous night during Everett’s 4-3 victory in Kelowna. Fellow defenseman Graham Potuer was a doubt because of the flu, but was able to play. … Vancouver was missing defensemen Craig Schira (shoulder), Neil Manning (wrist) and Stedan Schneider (knee) because of injury.
Giants 3, Silvertips 2
Everett 0 2 0—2
Vancouver 0 1 2—3
First Period—No goals. Penalties—Crowley, Everett (delay of game), 1:15; Palazzo, Vancouver (unsportsmanlike conduct), 4:10; Mistelbacher, Everett (tripping), 4:24; Vartovnik, Everett (high sticking), 7:56; Crowley, Everett (hold stick), 10:02; Potuer, Everett (tripping), 12:33.
Second Period—1, Vancouver, Machacek 7 (Blum), 7:33 (sh). 2, Everett, Hamill 4 (Beach, Gendur), 17:11. 3, Everett, Beach 8 (Hamill, Vartovnik), 19:21 (pp). Penalties—Czibere, Vancouver (roughing), 0:08; Beach, Everett (interference), 0:51; Palazzo, Vancouver (interference), 6:32; Sonne, Everett (fighting), 9:28; Hunt, Vancouver (fighting), 9:28; Crowley, Everett (unsportsmanlike conduct), 9:53; Cunningham, Vancouver (roughing), 9:53; Reich, Vancouver (unsportsmanlike conduct), 9:53; Regner, Vancouver (holding), 11:11; Karamnov, Everett (roughing), 13:39; Repik, Vancouver (roughing), 18:05; Palazzo, Vancouver (high sticking), 19:31.
Third Period—4, Vancouver, Bliznak 1 (Repik, Kane), 4:03 (pp). 5, Vancouver, Hunt 2 (Regner, Blum), 17:24. Penalties—Potuer, Everett (checking from behind), 3:52; Karamnov, Everett (charging), 7:05; Ellington, Everett (delay of game), 14:31; Beach, Everett (roughing), 20:00.
Shots on goal—Everett 3-11-5—18. Vancouver 19-8-9—36. Power-play opportunities—Everett 1 of 7. Vancouver 1 of 10. Goalies—Everett, Irving 5-5-0-0 (36 shots, 33 saves). Vancouver, Sexsmith 9-0-1-1 (18 shots, 16 saves). A—7,383.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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