The Everett Silvertips bookended Thanksgiving with a couple of home wins against Eastern Conference opponents before rounding out the week with a road loss against one of the Western Conference basement-dwellers, which snapped a six-game point streak (5-0-0-1).
The Silvertips (20-3-2-1, 43 points) remain atop the WHL standings entering this week, and a full nine points ahead of Prince George (17-8-0-0, 34 points) in the Western Conference.
Everett 8, Regina 3
Each side scored power play goals in the first period — Jaxsin Vaughan for Everett at 2:43 and Keets Fawcett for Regina at 12:03 — to make it 1-1 before the Silvertips scored four straight goals to surge ahead.
Tarin Smith made it 2-1 off a pass from Rylan Gould at 16:37, and Carter Bear finished off Julius Miettinen’s pass from behind the net at 19:47 to extend it to 3-1.
Zackary Shantz pushed it to 4-1 on a power-play goal at 2:55 of the second period after Jesse Heslop sent a pass to the right circle when his tight-angle redirect was turned away. Miettinen made it 5-1 off the rush with Matias Vanhanen at 5:14.
Caden Brown cut it to 5-2 for Regina at 14:13, but Bear scored the next two goals on the power play just 21 seconds apart to complete his hat trick and bolster Everett’s lead. Both goals were one-timers from the right circle.
Mathis Paull cut it to 7-3 for the Pats at 2:43 of the third period, and Brek Liske finished things off with his first goal of the season at 15:13 for the 8-3 final.
Everett 6, Swift Current 0
The Silvertips wasted little time jumping ahead in this Friday night matchup, and didn’t look back after Smith displayed excellent stick-handling skills to get in on net and beat Broncos goalie Aiden Eskit with his backhand at 4:55 of the first period.
Bear extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 9:43, and Vaughan pushed it to 3-0 on a rebound of Smith’s shot from the point at 9:34 of the second period.
It was Gould’s turn to show off some skill at 11:10 of the second, faking a pass from the point to get into space before skating in for a goal against his former team to make it 4-0.
Shantz finished off a netfront scramble off a shot from Heslop on the power play at 19:49 to extend it to 5-0, and Lukas Kaplan slipped a shot through from the slot for another Everett power-play goal at 19:27 of the third period to close out the game.
The Silvertips outshot Swift Current 56-15, and Everett goalie Anders Miller stopped all 15 shots in the shutout performance.
Vancouver 4, Everett 3
Everett saw its six-game point streak come to an end on Saturday, quickly falling behind 2-0 in the first 3:01 of the game and failing to rebound.
Leonardo Domenichelli and Ty Halaburda scored 32 seconds apart at 2:29 and 3:01 of the first period, respectively. Domenichelli picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and skated in to score off the rush, and Halaburda went five-hole on LeGall after Ryan Lin sparked a rush up ice following an Everett turnover.
Heslop cut it to 2-1 at 8:25 of the first, backhanding a rebound in on the power play, but Vancouver scored the next two goals — a power-play goal from Cameron Schmidt at 9:27 and a short-handed penalty shot from Torretto Marrelli at 2:09 of the second period — to jump ahead 4-1.
Vaughan cut it to 4-2 at 3:54 of the second, going backhand to forehand in the slot to rebound a shot from Shantz. Miettinen cut it to 4-3 at 5:00 of the third period after finishing off a pass from Bear, who picked up the puck off a Giants defender’s stick.
Everett outshot Vancouver 24-5 in the third period, but couldn’t find the equalizer as the Giants held on for the victory.
Three Stars of the Week:
First Star: Tarin Smith. The 19-year-old defenseman earned WHL Player of the Week after scoring two goals and seven points across three games. The Silvertips captain is tied for third in scoring among WHL defensemen with 28 points in 25 games.
Second Star: Carter Bear. The 19-year-old forward is equally deserving of the First Star this week after his hat trick and four-point game in Wednesday’s 8-3 win against Regina, which highlighted a week in which he totaled seven points (four goals, three assists).
Third Star: Zackary Shantz. The 20-year-old forward had multi-point performances in all three games this week, finishing with two goals and four assists total.
The week ahead
The Silvertips host another Wednesday night matchup, this time against Spokane, before heading east for a Friday night game against Tri-City. Everett wraps up the week with a home rematch against Vancouver on Saturday.
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