Three early Everett goals sink Thunderbirds in 4-2 loss
Mar 4, 2017, 10:10 PM
EVERETT – The game of leap frog the Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips have been playing of late continued Saturday night.
The Silvertips burst out of the gates on Saturday and scored three goals in the first eight minutes. Those eight minutes turned out to be the difference in the game.
Seattle (41-19-4-2) couldn’t recover from the early deficit and Everett (39-14-8-3) went on to a big 4-2 win in front of a sold out Xfinity Arena. Everett got goals from four different scorers and out shot the Thunderbirds 40-17 on the evening.
The win put the Silvertips back in front of Seattle for the U.S. Division lead by a point with just a handful of games left in the regular season. It also stemmed the tide that had seen Seattle win five out of six against the Silvertips.
“They get the three quick goals and we didn’t recover,” Seattle coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “There wasn’t a lot to like about our game. We know we can be a lot better from physical work to wanting to compete. I think our guys were excited to play, it was when we were down 3-0 we didn’t want to grind it out.”
The Silvertips are the top defensive squad in the WHL and with the lead, they clamped down on the T-Birds attack. They held Seattle to just one shot during the second period as the T-Birds tried to get back in the contest.
“I didn’t think we were mentally tough enough to stick with the game plan and chip away one shift at a time,” Konowalchuk said. “We lost composure that way and when you get stubborn with some of your game plan it’s tough to get a lot going.”
Everett got the scoring going just as a Seattle power play was ending. Connor Dewar stripped the puck at the blue line and fired a shot from just inside the post.
The Silvertips wasted no time extending that lead and scored 59 seconds later when Devon Skoleski was left alone in front of the Seattle net and got a rebound shot over Rylan Toth.
Seattle’s problems were compounded just a minute later when they went short handed and the Silvertips made them pay when Riley Sutter slid a puck past Toth.
With three goals allowed in eight minutes, the T-Birds made a change and Carl Stankowski came in to relieve Toth. The rookie goalie held down the fort for the T-Birds the rest of the way and ended the night by making 33 saves and only allowing one goal.
“Carl went in and played a great game for us,” Konowalchuk said. “That’s probably the only good spot. Other than Stankowski, everybody else in that lineup, myself included, can all be better. It just wasn’t a good game.”
The T-Birds managed to calm the game down somewhat the remainder of the period and cut the lead to two when Mathew Barzal found Austin Strand in the slot. The big defenseman spun and fired a backhanded shot that found its way past Hart.
Any chance that Seattle might have had to make a comeback in the third period was quickly dashed when Patrick Bajkov got behind the defense and scored his 27th of the year. That goal made it 4-1 for Everett and came just 53 seconds into the final period.
Keegan Kolesar would get Seattle a bit closer when he stole an Everett clearing pass and ripped a wrist shot past Hart for his 25th goal of the year.
Down by only two goals, the Thunderbirds could not stay out of the box and took two penalties in the last five minutes, making any late comeback nearly impossible.
Seattle will have a couple of days off now before hosting the Spokane Chiefs on Tuesday night. They do so, with the division and conference lead still up for grabs.
“We let one slip away,” Konowalchuk said. “We’ve got to get back on it, there’s still a lot of hockey. We haven’t had this kind of game in quite a while. Where I just felt that nothing went right from top to bottom.”
Notes
• Seattle was again without defensemen Jarret Tyszka and Ethan Bear and it showed at times as their defense struggled to get pucks out of their own zone at times.
• The 17 shots that the Thunderbirds put on Carter Hart were the fewest they’ve mustered in a game all year. Coming into the game they had not been held under 20.
• Bear’s presence is also felt on the T-Birds power play. Since his injury, Seattle has failed in three games to score on with the man advantage. Of course, that does include Friday night’s game when Seattle did not get a power-play chance.
• Everett did a good job limiting Barzal and his line on Friday but the center did manage one assist which extended his scoring streak to five games.
