EVERETT — The Tri-City Americans have speed. They are known throughout the Western Hockey League for their ability to pressure opponents with the way they fly around the ice.
But Saturday night it wasn’t just the Americans’ speed of foot, it was their speed of scoring that did the Everett Silvertips in.
Lightning-quick strikes were Tri-City’s order of the day as the Americans sprinted past the Tips 7-2 at Comcast Arena.
Kruise Reddick scored his first career WHL hat trick as the Americans ended Everett’s four-game winning streak in dramatic fashion.
But it was the rapid-fire nature of Tri-City’s scoring that left the Tips scrambling. The Americans found the net twice in 17 seconds midway through the second period to erase a 1-0 Everett lead, scored twice in 3:24 late in the second to break a 2-2 tie, then scored eight seconds into the third period to plunge in the dagger. Tri-City scored the game’s final five goals.
“They’re a good offensive team,” Everett coach John Becanic said of the Americans.
“The score was rough, but I didn’t mind our play to be honest,” Becanic added. “We weren’t awful. We missed three or four wide-open nets in the first period, their goalie (Chet Pickard) made some big saves when he had to, and we didn’t quite get the goaltending we needed to win a hockey game.”
Mitch Fadden, Brett Plouffe, Brooks Macek and Jason Reese also scored for Tri-City (16-7-0-2), which consigned Everett netminder Kent Simpson to a rough night. The Tips’ 16-year-old goalie, locked in a battle with Shayne Barrie for Everett’s No. 1 position, gave up six goals on 33 shots.
Pickard was strong, finishing with 27 saves in goal for Tri-City, which also put a little distance between itself and Everett in the U.S. Division standings. The Tips (13-9-3-0) had snuck to within three points of the second-place Americans going into the game, but now Everett finds itself five points back.
“We definitely knew that,” Reddick said. “They were three points behind us and right on our tails, so we wanted to put some gap between us and them. And we don’t want (first-place) Spokane to get too far ahead of us, either.
“I think we played really good,” Reddick added. “There have been nights where we haven’t come out and played a full 60 minutes. Tonight we came out right from the start, took it to them and didn’t let off. So I was really happy to see this effort.”
For Everett, Dale Hunt scored his first goal in a Silvertips uniform and Shane Harper also scored.
Tri-City presented a substantially greater challenge than Portland, the team the Tips hosted Wednesday and Friday. Everett had its way with the Winter Hawks, winning 7-1 and 5-2 against the division’s cellar dwellers.
But a stronger Tri-City team gave the Tips fits. The Americans’ aggressive style on the penalty kill completely befuddled Everett’s power play, which went 0-for-5, and the Tips found themselves scrambling in their own zone on several occasions.
“The big difference between playing Portland on Friday and Tri-City on Saturday is you’re looking at three overagers (Fadden, Reese and Taylor Procyshen) who have had 30-plus goals the last couple years,” Becanic said. “They’re a pretty deep team offensively, so they’re going to challenge you. But with the game 2-2 I thought we had settled down, just a couple bad goals late in the second that kind of took the wind out of our sails.”
Indeed, the territorial battle was much closer than the final score, with the Americans only outshooting the Tips 34-29. However, Tri-City got some pucks past Simpson that Simpson would probably like back.
Simpson seemed to be gaining the inside track on Everett’s starting goaltending position, starting four of Everett’s past five games. However, Becanic said there’s still no defined No. 1 between Simpson and Barrie.
“We feel both guys are in a dead-even battle for playing time,” Becanic said. “We just rotated guys this week. I don’t know who the starter will be on Wednesday (in Everett’s next game at Tri-City).”
The game was decided during a span of 5:42 between the second and third periods. The score was tied 2-2 after a furious 36-second stretch earlier in the second during which three goals were scored. But the Americans regained the lead at 14:26 when Plouffe blasted a slap shot past Simpson. Then at 17:50 Macek scored on a wraparound, giving the Americans a two-goal lead going into the third.
The game was then all but ended eight seconds into the third when Plouffe released Reddick on a breakaway, and Reddick beat Simpson with a wrister to make it 5-2.
Everett pulled out every trick in its book in an attempt to close, even pulling Simpson with 9:39 remaining. But Reese scored into an empty net at 13:56 and Reddick completed his hat trick with 24 seconds remaining in the game.
Americans 7, Silvertips 2
Tri-City 0 4 3—7
Everett 0 2 0—2
@5. NHL box :First Period—No goals. Penalties—Mistelbacher, Everett (hooking), 6:45; Reese, Tri-City (hooking), 9:50; Stoklasa, Tri-City (tripping), 16:56.
Second Period—1, Everett, Hunt 2 (Alexander, Dailey), 3:04. 2, Tri-City, Reddick 6 (Hughesman, Pickard), 8:00. 3, Tri-City, Fadden 5, 8:17. 4, Everett, Harper 9 (Beach), 8:36. 5, Tri-City, Plouffe 6 (Feser), 14:26. 6, Tri-City, Macek 3 (Wilgosh, Lazo), 17:50. Penalties—Macek, Tri-City (hooking), 4:09; Beach, Everett (unsportsmanlike conduct), 8:36; Beach, Everett (interference), 18:32.
Third Period—7, Tri-City, Reddick 7 (Plouffe, Procyshen), 0:08 (pp). 8, Tri-City, Reese 15 (Fadden) 13:56 (en). 9, Tri-City, Reddick 8 (McColm), 19:36. Penalties—McColm, Tri-City (interference), 4:46; Wilgosh, Tri-City (high sticking), 14:20.
Shots on goal—Tri-City 11-14-9—34. Everett 9-12-8—29. Power-play opportunities—Tri-City 1 of 3. Everett 0 of 5.
Goalies—Tri-City, Pickard 13-7-0-2 (29 shots, 27 saves). Everett, Simpson 7-4-1-0 (33 shots, 27 saves).
A—7,155.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
