SPOKANE — The newest full-time member of the Everett Silvertips couldn’t have picked a better time to score his first Western Hockey League goal.

Wonderkid Zach Hamill came to Everett’s rescue, scoring 2 minutes, 26 seconds into overtime, and the Silvertips defeated the Spokane Chiefs 5-4 Tuesday night in Game 3 to take a commanding lead in their first-round playoff series.

"That’s a nice way to introduce yourself to the WHL, with an overtime winner in the playoffs," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "That was nice to see."

Said Hamill about scoring his first WHL goal: "It was pretty good because it helped the team out in overtime. So that was probably the best way to do it. Any other way wouldn’t have been as good."

Mark Kress, Marc Desloges, Cody Thoring and Riley Armstrong also scored for Everett and Jeff Harvey made 42 saves in goal. But it was Hamill’s game winner that allowed Everett to save face after blowing a three-goal lead in the third period.

It also gave the Silvertips a 3-0 series lead going into tonight’s Game 4. One more win and Everett will add yet another WHL first, becoming the league’s first expansion team to win a playoff series.

Hamill, Everett’s first-round pick in the 2003 Bantam Draft, is the Silvertips’ anointed golden boy, but his arrival date wasn’t supposed to be until the 2004-05 season.

Hamill’s Junior B team made an unexpected early exit from the playoffs, allowing the 15-year-old from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, to join the Silvertips at the beginning of the series. In the first two games Hamill was little factor.

That changed Tuesday. Mitch Love worked the puck into the Spokane zone but he was tied up as he approached the slot. Hamill followed up and rifled a shot through traffic and Spokane goalie Jim Watt to send the Silvertips into a frenzy and the 4,012 fans at Spokane Arena to the exits.

" (Michael) Wuchterl made a big hit and then Love picked the puck up, dropped it and I just shot the puck and saw the net move and I knew it was over," Hamill said.

"I was just trying to throw it on net and get a good shot off and hopefully something good would happen, a goal or a rebound, and luckily it was a goal."

The goal was a huge blow to the Chiefs, who had fought back from a 4-1 deficit in the third period to force overtime.

"It’s just heartbreaking," Spokane forward Jeff Lucky said. "It’s almost as bad as losing the series right there. You work so hard to get so close, to lose it in overtime almost makes a guy want to cry."

Everett put itself in commanding position by playing perhaps its best opening 10 minutes of the season. Kress opened the scoring 3:51 into the game by shoveling the puck past Watt from in front after a pass from Desloges. They then swapped places 1:29 later when a hit by Kress opened up a two-on-one for Desloges and Desloges deked Watt to score a goal at the 5:20 mark. Cody Thoring made it 3-0 at 9:49 with his first career WHL goal, trailing a two-on-one and scoring on a feed from John Dahl.

The Silvertips led 4-1 going into the third period when the unthinkable happened: The best team in the WHL with a lead coughed it up. During the regular season Everett was 24-4-3 when scoring first and 28-0-2 when leading after two periods. The Silvertips with a three-goal lead in the third period and it’s over, right?

Wrong.

Spokane did exactly what it needed to do by scoring early, Ned Lukacevic coming off the bench late to finish off a two-on one. The Chiefs pulled within one when Brad Schell’s shot from the left point beat Harvey at 8:35, and Spokane completed its comeback when Lucky stuffed in a pass from Lukacevic at 15:38 on the power play.

Slap shots: Everett played without one of its top players, defenseman Ivan Baranka. Baranka was scratched with the flu. On the plus side, right wing Torrie Wheat, who was an injury doubt going into Tuesday’s game with a sore elbow, was in the lineup, though he was used sparingly . … . Spokane defenseman Scott Lynch was suspended for his second straight game. Lynch, voted the Chiefs Defenseman of the Year, was suspended for checking Everett’s Jeff Schmidt from behind in Game 1 and separating Schmidt’s shoulder. Lynch was suspended one game and after the WHL reviewed tape of the hit Monday, the suspension was increased to two games. Lynch will be eligible for today’s game.