The Everett Silvertips closed out 2024 with a convincing win against Portland, but dropped two close matchups with Victoria to start their 2025 slate, snapping their four-game win streak.
Despite the losses, Everett remains entrenched atop the U.S. Division and Western Conference. The Silvertips also lead the Western Hockey League (WHL) standings with 61 points, nine ahead of second-place Spokane.
Everett 7, Portland 3
The Silvertips didn’t waste any time against the Winterhawks on New Year’s Eve. Lukas Kaplan opened the scoring just 43 seconds in for the center’s second goal of the season. After the Winterhawks tied it with a short-handed goal at 9:26, the Silvertips scored four straight goals – two from winger Dominik Ryman – between 14:49 of the first and 2:27 of the second.
“I thought we had a pretty good gameplan,” Silvertips coach Steve Hamilton said. “We wanted to make sure our shot volume was up, and we were going to the net, making it hard on their defensemen. It paid off a little bit with some rebounds and loose pucks.”
The Winterhawks scored twice to cut it to 5-3 by the final 3:45 of the game, but center Tyler MacKenzie and winger Jesse Heslop piled on with goals scored 48 seconds apart to seal the win. MacKenzie and defenseman Landon DuPont led the scoring with one goal and two assists each, and Jesse Sanche made 27 saves to wrap 2024.
Victoria 2, Everett 1 (OT)
Everett had a slow start to kick off the new year against the Royals, who outshot the Silvertips 15-8 in the first period and took a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal from Brayden Boehm. Play started to even out in the second period, but the Silvertips couldn’t find an equalizer until winger Carter Bear struck on the power play at 13:10 of the third period for his 25th goal of the season.
Victoria defenseman Keaton Verhoeff won it for the Royals just 1:34 into the extra period to snap Everett’s four-game win streak, but Bear’s tying goal to force overtime and Sanche’s 34-save effort salvaged a point in the standings.
“Jesse was busier than he’s been, maybe, in a lot of games, and he really stepped up,” Silvertips general manager Mike Fraser said. “So it was good to see for him.”
Victoria 4, Everett 3 (SO)
For the second day in a row, these two teams required more than 60 minutes to decide a winner, but this time it was the Royals that came back to force overtime.
After a scoreless first period, Heslop opened the scoring for Everett with a short-handed goal just 88 seconds into the second period, and center Andrew Petruk doubled the lead at 5:43. The Royals scored on a power play at 1:24 of the third to cut the deficit, but Bear restored Everett’s two-goal lead with the Silvertips’ second shorty of the night at 7:51.
“[Bear has] been rock-solid for us all year long,” Hamilton said. “I think a big part of that is his consistency. He’s ultra-competitive, and a guy that’s always on the inside of the play. He’s around the net. He’s extremely difficult to contain in small areas, and most of his production has to do with him going hard to the net and kind of not being denied around there.”
However, Victoria scored on the same man-advantage just 16 seconds after Bear made it 3-1, and the previous night’s overtime hero Verhoeff struck again at 14:11 to tie it 3-3, eventually forcing overtime. With no score in the extra period, DuPont had the game on his stick in the third round of the shootout after Victoria went up 1-0 in the second. The star defenseman scored to force sudden-death rounds, but Victoria pulled out the win after Royals center Hayden Moore scored and Silvertips defenseman Tarin Smith failed to convert in the fifth round.
Three Stars of the Week:
First star: Carter Bear. The 18-year-old scored two clutch third-period goals – one in each game against Victoria – and added two assists in the blowout win against Portland at the beginning of the week.
Second star: Landon DuPont. The 15-year-old defenseman had four points (one goal, three assists) and scored Everett’s lone goal in the shootout in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to Victoria.
Third star: Jesse Sanche. The 18-year-old goalie appeared in two games this week, going 1-0-1 while stopping 61-of-66 shots (0.924 SV%) and posting a 2.47 GAA. He leads the WHL with a 2.29 GAA and .913 save percentage this season.
The week ahead
Everett has three games in as many days this weekend, starting with a home game against Spokane on Friday. Spokane won 4-3 in a shootout in their last matchup on Nov. 22. The Silvertips take on Seattle on Saturday, to whom they have not lost a game this season. Everett is 4-0-0-0 against the Thunderbirds, with a combined scoring margin of 20-7. Finally, Everett returns to Angel of the Winds Arena to host Tri-City on Sunday. Tri-City won the first two matchups this season – 6-5 in overtime then 8-6, respectively – but the Silvertips won their most recent game, 4-1 on Dec. 14.
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