Tips on the brink

EVERETT — If the Everett Silvertips are truly a team of destiny, they now have the perfect opportunity to prove it.

Only a team of destiny could possibly overcome the long odds the Silvertips face now.

Everett finds itself teetering on the brink of elimination after falling 3-0 to the Medicine Hat Tigers on Tuesday night in Game 3 of the Western Hockey League Championship Series.

Before a record Everett Events Center crowd of 8,608, Kevin Nastiuk recorded his second shutout of the series and Stefan Meyer, Yannic Seidenberg and Chris St. Jacques scored goals as the Tigers took a commanding 3-0 series lead.

"Like all year long, we’re familiar to this feeling right now," Everett right wing Barry Horman said. "Everyone’s counted us out all year long and we know ourselves in the dressing room we can come back from this. That would be a great story if we did."

The Silvertips have lived the Cinderella story all season, transforming themselves from an expansion team into conference champions. But after Tuesday night’s loss, midnight is a mere tick away. Everett now must win four straight to advance to the Memorial Cup. Only one team in WHL history has ever overcome a 3-0 series deficit when the Spokane Chiefs came back to defeat the Portland Winter Hawks in 1996. Game 4 is tonight at the Everett Events Center.

"Our backs have been against the wall all year," Everett defenseman Mitch Love said. "Obviously you never want to be down three games to none, but we just have to take one game at a time like the last series against Kelowna. If we win (tonight) we’re right back to 3-1, the same situation as Kelowna. We just have to come to the rink with the right attitude tomorrow and not bury ourselves and give an all-out effort for these fans."

The nature of Tuesday’s game seems to indicate that Everett’s magic, which carried the Silvertips to three straight overtime victories in the Western Conference finals against Kelowna, may have finally run out. Everett, which was stuck in neutral offensively in the first two games, played by far its best game of the series. The Silvertips created the majority of the quality scoring chances and matched the Tigers in shots for the first time in the series at 27-27. However, it was Medicine Hat that got the bounces and the goals.

Everett has scored just one goal in the series’ three games.

"We had good chances," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "Their goalie was good, we didn’t capitalize. They got some chances and scored. It was a little better game in terms of territorial play. In Medicine Hat we didn’t really even create that much. Here we created and didn’t score. We’re one step closer, we just need about a 55-game series and I think we’ll be there by the end of it. We’re just kind of running out of time."

Everett was particularly strong in the first period, peppering Nastiuk with shots. But Nastiuk made a series a difficult saves to keep the game scoreless until Meyer scored the game’s all-important first goal at the 18-minute mark of the first period.

"We knew Everett was going to come out strong," Nastiuk said. "They’re playing for their lives and we just tried to weather the storm. Their crowd gives them a big boost here at home and we just tried to weather the storm and get that first goal, which we did, and build from that."

Nastiuk finished with 27 saves. Everett goalie Jeff Harvey, back in the starting lineup after being yanked after one period in Game 2, made 24 saves.

In the first period, just as the Silvertips hit their stride for the first time in the series, the Tigers struck, scoring on their first power-play opportunity of the game. Darren Reid disposed Love in the right circle, twirled and backhanded a pass across the crease to Meyer, waiting all alone at the far post. Meyer tapped the past into an open net to give the Tigers the lead at 18:00 with his seventh goal of the playoffs.

The Silvertips then had a number of golden chances to tie the score in the second period, but were unable to find the net. A fortunate bounce gave Marc Desloges the puck unmarked in front of the goal, but he was unable to beat Nastiuk after a couple of moves; John Dahl was put in alone shorthanded after a poor pass by Chris St. Jacques, but shot high and wide; and Jeff Schmidt forced in a rebound, but well after the whistle had sounded.

Seidenberg essentially put the game away at 2:36 of the third period, blasting a shot past Harvey into the upper-right corner for his fifth of the playoffs. St. Jacques added an empty-net goal, his second of the series, at 17:17, his 12th of the playoffs.

Slap shots: Everett left wing Tyler Dietrich, listed as day-to-day with lingering effects from a hit to the head suffered against Vancouver in the second round, was scratched for the eight straight game. Also scratched was forward Zach Hamill. The 15-year-old was rested for the first time in the playoffs … The start of the game was delayed for about 10 minutes because Medicine Hat’s Tommy Maxwell shattered one of the glass panels while shooting a puck during warm-ups. … Medicine Hat forward Steve Regier was named the WHL Player of the Week. Regier scored twice in Medicine Hat’s 4-1 victory in Game 1, then added an assist in the Tigers’ 3-0 victory in Game 2.

At Everett Events Center