EVERETT – A day later and it’s still hard to believe the Everett Silvertips’ season is already over.
The team that finished with the best record in the Western Hockey League and earned the No. 1 ranking in the Canadian Hockey League poll was supposed to make a lengthy playoff run and challenge for the Memorial Cup.
Instead the Tips will be undergoing exit meetings today, more than a month earlier than they hoped.
“You never would have thought that with what we accomplished, come April 16 we’re done,” overage right wing Moises Gutierrez said. “It’s so weird getting home and there’s no hockey.
“It’s a tough way to finish a junior career,” Gutierrez added. “I loved every minute here. I loved the fans, I loved the organization and I love my coaches and teammates. It’s been a good year, but it was a tough finish.”
Everett suffered its early demise at the hands of the Prince George Cougars, falling 4-2 in the best-of-seven second-round series that concluded with an ugly 8-2 defeat in Prince George on Monday.
“I can’t even explain how I feel, I’m in shock right now,” Everett captain Jason Fransoo said. “When you set your goals really high, and we obviously didn’t meet them, it’s kind of an abrupt end to the season.”
But despite the earlier-than-expected exit, it was still a season of significant accomplishments for the Tips, who won their third U.S. Division title in four seasons and earned their first Scotty Munro Trophy for the league’s best record during the regular season.
“I told (the players after Monday’s game) how proud I was of them,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “That team in the locker room put up two banners and won more games than any team that’s been here. That’s something to be awful proud of. We can sit and second guess all night long about this series. The bottom line is this team accomplished a lot over the year, so we’re real proud of them.”
Unfortunately for the Tips, it all came cascading down in the final three games. Everett had a chance to take a 3-1 series lead, leading 3-2 late in the third period of Game 4 in Prince George only to lose in overtime. Then the Tips had a commanding 3-0 third-period lead at home in Game 5, only to lose 4-3.
The weight of those two losses was a heavy burden, though there were a variety of responses to how much the ghost of those defeats – Game 5 in particular – hung over the Tips in the decisive Game 6.
“I think it was too much to overcome,” Everett center Peter Mueller said. “It was always a tough one to swallow. We bounced back, but they were on a roll. They were on fire and they got the bounces.”
Fransoo disagreed: “I don’t think it was the difference. Obviously it was a momentum shift. But we were down 3-2 and it’s not a series until somebody wins or loses four games. That wasn’t the issue.”
Leave it to Constantine to take the Solomonic approach.
“Confidence is always an up-and-down thing,” he said. “After we had a lead in Game 4 with seven minutes to go and gave that up, I thought our response to that in Game 5 was really good, we played a great first two periods in Everett. I think we responded to giving up a lead the first time really good, but giving it up two games in a row is taxing mentally. I don’t think that was an issue going into (Game 6), but if you give up a couple goals like we did early, then all of a sudden that starts to come back.”
And now the Tips are left wondering what could have been had they just been able to hold a lead.
“It’s easy to say, ‘what if?’” Gutierrez said. “It’s going to eat me up the next two weeks. I’m going to question everything I did and didn’t do. In Game 4 we had a 3-2 lead with seven minutes to go. In Game 5 we blew a 3-0 lead. It’ll kill you if you keep questioning, ‘what if?’ It’s over now.”
Over just a little too soon for Everett.
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