The Everett Silvertips opened the 2025-26 season on a red-hot scoring pace, scoring at least four goals in five of six games this season.
As such, the Silvertips (5-0-1-0, 11 points) once again find themselves atop the entire WHL standings — albeit just one point ahead of Edmonton (5-1-0-0, 10 points) at the very early stages of the campaign — after winning the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy for the best regular season record last year.
Everett won each of its three games this past weekend, collectively outscoring its opponents 21-8.
Everett 7, Tri-City 1
Friday was a day to remember for Julius Miettinen. The 19-year-old Silvertips forward signed his entry-level contract with the Seattle Kraken, which selected him in the second round (40th overall) of the 2024 NHL Draft, before recording a hat trick and an assist at Angel of the Winds Arena later that night.
It took just 48 seconds for Miettinen to put Everett on the board, and Zackary Shantz struck at 1:34 on the power play to quickly make it 2-0.
The Americans cut it to 2-1 at 8:21 with a power-play goal of their own from defenseman Charlie Elick, but that’s as close as it would get. Miettinen scored his second of the night at 11:57 and completed his hat trick at 13:53 of the third period with a short-handed goal to make it 7-1.
In between, Shea Busch, Matias Vanhanen and Jesse Heslop each scored, and goalie Raiden LeGall made 26 saves in the victory.
Vanhanen finished the night with four assists on top of his goal. The rookie forward from Finland has shined on the top line alongside Miettinen and Busch to start the season, but more on that later…
Everett 9, Victoria 4
The Herald was on-site for this matchup, and you can read the full coverage here.
The Vanhanen-Miettinen-Busch line lit things up again, with Busch putting up five points and following up Miettinen’s hat trick with one of his own. Meanwhile, Miettinen and Vanhanen each scored one goal and two assists. Rookie goalie Finn Werner made his WHL debut, stopping 12 of 16 shots.
The Silvertips scored twice in the first 4:06 with goals from Heslop and Tarin Smith, and carried a 4-2 lead into the first intermission. The Royals cut it to 4-3 with a power-play goal at 2:29 of the second period, but the Silvertips’ top line contributed to the team’s next five goals down the stretch to ultimately run away with the win.
Everett 5, Tri-City 3
The Silvertips rounded out the week on the road on Sunday, creating a couple of close chances out of the gate before Busch continued his scoring streak at 15:13 of the first period, finishing off an odd-man rush with Vanhanen at the net front.
Elick tied it 1-1 for Tri-City 38 seconds into the second period, but Mirco Dufour put Everett back ahead at 5:05 with his first WHL goal, rebounding a shot from Rhys Jamieson. The Silvertips continued to pile up chances, outshooting the Americans 30-16 in the first two periods, but didn’t start to pull away until the third frame.
Schaefer pushed it to 3-1 at 8:51 of the third, bouncing off a couple of bodies before punching in a cross-crease pass from Nolan Chastko, and Jaxsin Vaughan made it 4-1 with a power-play goal from the right circle at 12:18.
Tri-City brought it back within one with goals from Cruz Pavao and Tomas Racz just under two minutes apart late in regulation, but Everett held them off before Heslop scored an empty-netter with six seconds left to secure the win.
Three Stars of the Week:
First Star: Matias Vanhanen. The 18-year-old forward had multiple points in each game, totaling two goals and eight assists in three contests and earning WHL Player of the Week honors. Everett’s first-round pick in the 2025 CHL Import Draft (31st overall) is already paying dividends in his rookie season. His 13 points in six games ranks second across the WHL so far.
Second Star: Shea Busch. The 18-year-old forward has points in every game he’s played so far (five), highlighted by his five-point night with a hat trick against Victoria on Saturday. He bookended the weekend with a goal on both Friday and Sunday.
Third Star: Julius Miettinen. Only reasonable that the third member of Everett’s top line rounds out the three stars this week. Despite not scoring a point in Sunday’s win, the 19-year-old forward posted seven points (four goals, three assists) across the first two games of the weekend, recording a hat trick on Friday.
As a whole, the trio combined for 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) in three games.
The week ahead:
The Silvertips don’t return to Angel of the Winds Arena until Oct. 24. They have a two-game swing in Victoria next weekend on Friday and Saturday, a quick rematch after Everett defeated the Royals 9-4 this past Saturday.
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