EVERETT — Reece Vitelli wasn’t even certain he’d be playing in the Western Hockey League this season.
A fourth-round pick by Everett in the 2016 bantam draft, Vitelli signed with the Tips during training camp and made the roster.
On Friday, the 16-year-old rookie center delivered the biggest goal of his young WHL career when he gave Everett its first lead of the game and the Silvertips went on to defeat the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-2 before 5,983 fans at Xfinity Arena.
“He’s definitely earned all his minutes, and as a (16-year-old) he’s playing a lot of big minutes and a lot of ice time for us,” head coach Dennis Williams said. “He’s done a great job there. There’s going to be times where he has mental lapses, or fatigue or strength issues because of his age and size, and when we play this many games in this many days, it makes it very difficult. But I’m very proud of the way he’s competing and battling and is doing a great job as the third-line center.”
Vitelli, a native of Winnipeg, snapped the 1-1 tie when he crashed the net and buried a rebound off a shot from Sean Richards at 15:10 in the third period.
“He went wide and he had an off-angle shot so I thought there might be a rebound because he’s probably not going to get a quality shot,” Vitelli said. “So it was just laying there and I just tapped it.”
Richards then appeared to seal it with an empty-netter with 43 seconds to play while extending his goal streak to five games.
However, Seattle’s Nolan Volcan cut it to 3-2 with the Thunderbirds’ net empty.
The good news for Everett was that just 10 seconds remained. The Tips won the ensuing faceoff and held on for the win.
It was the second straight victory for Everett (10-10-1-1, 22 points). Seattle (9-9-1-1, 20 points) has lost five straight.
The Tips are also 4-1-0-1 since goaltender Carter Hart returned from mononucleosis and 6-1-0-1 in their last eight contests.
“I think we needed a big push if we wanted to give it a chance in tonight’s game,” forward Patrick Bajkov said. “Playing Seattle especially with the hard-working group like they are, we went in the dressing room, kind of regrouped, talked about it and were able to push through.”
The Tips evened the game 1-1 at 13:01 in the second period.
While killing off a penalty, Bajkov anticipated a pass, won a race to the loose puck and buried a breakaway shot past Liam Hughes. The goal was Bajkov’s 217th career point and moved him past Josh Winquist into second place all-time in Silvertips scoring.
“There have been great players coming through this organization for the last 15 years,” Bajkov said. “Obviously playing with Josh Winquist when I was 16, I looked up to him on the ice and off the ice. But we have to move on and have a big game (tonight) in Kent.”
It remained 1-1 through two periods.
Everett found itself trailing when it failed to clear a puck from behind its own net and Nolan Volcan slammed a back-handed shot past Hart to give Seattle a 1-0 lead at 9:12 in the first period.
It was the first goal allowed by Hart in 133:52 of game action. The T-birds outshot Everett 12-5 in the opening frame.
“I thought we looked timid, I thought we looked scared a little bit,” Williams said. “They’re a big, physical team. That’s their game. They’re big, they’re strong, they hit and I thought we were just a half a step out there, a little slow, a little tentative, reaching and poking for pucks instead of engaging. As the third went on we started managing pucks smarter and making them come 200 feet.”
Everett came up empty on a five-minute major penalty committed by Seattle’s Tyler Carpendale that spanned the first and second periods.
The Tips continued their power-play futility as they were 0-for-3 on the man advantage. They are now 1-for-34 going back to a 3-1 win at Kamloops on Oct. 27.
Everett narrowed the shot discrepancy to 33-27 by game’s end as Hart finished with 31 saves.
The teams complete their weekend home-and-home series beginning at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at ShoWare Center in Kent.
Silvertips 3, Thunderbirds 2
Seattle 1 0 1 — 2
Everett 0 1 2 — 3
1st Period—1, Seattle, Volcan 7 (Bargar, Tyszka), 9:12. Penalties—Hamaliuk Sea (checking from behind), 3:27; Carpendale Sea (game misconduct), 3:56; Carpendale Sea (major-spearing), 16:56.
2nd Period—2, Everett, Bajkov 11 13:01 (SH). Penalties—Bajkov Evt (tripping), 7:20; Davis Evt (slashing), 12:10; Hyman Sea (holding), 18:10.
3rd Period—3, Everett, Vitelli 2 (Richards, Wylie), 15:10. 4, Everett, Richards 9 (Davis, Bajkov), 19:17 (EN). 5, Seattle, Volcan 8 19:49. Penalties—Hyman Sea (roughing), 19:38; Tyszka Sea (roughing), 19:38; Butt Evt (roughing), 19:38; Ormsby Evt (roughing), 19:38.
Shots on Goal—Seattle 12-9-12-33. Everett 5-8-13-26.
Power Play Opportunities—Seattle 0 / 2; Everett 0 / 3.
Goalies—Seattle, Hughes 4-4-1-0 (25 shots-23 saves). Everett, Hart 5-2-0-1 (33 shots-31 saves).
A—5,983
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