The magical run continues for the Everett Silvertips. On Monday night in Game 6 against in the Tri-City Americans, they overcame a rare off night from their award-winning goalie and a three-goal third period deficit, to win in overtime 6-5 and capture their first Western Conference championship since 2004 – their inaugural season.
It was overage blue liner Kevin Davis, in his 401st career game for Everett that netted the overtime winner on the power play. The goal was his second of the game and gave him a three-point night.
Jake Christiansen who scored the series clincher in the second round against Portland drew a tripping call in Tri-City’s Dylan Coghlan, setting up the man advantage where Connor Dewar found a wide open Davis for a one-timer.
This series looked headed back to Everett for Game 7 in less than 24 hours after the Americans scored four straight and led 5-2 midway through the third.
This Everett team, which never seems out of any game this playoff run, scored three times to force overtime and set up Davis’ heroics.
The win also extends the Silvertips road winning streak to seven in the playoffs. They are 7-0 away from home, the first time a WHL team has done that since the 2006 Vancouver Giants. That Giants team beat Prince George in five, Portland in five and Everett in four, before going to the WHL final and defeating Moose Jaw in four. Their road record was a perfect 8-0.
They lost in the Memorial Cup semi-final.
Everett will start on the road in the WHL final, as the Swift Current Broncos have home-ice advantage. The Silvertips are just 5-4 at Angel of the Winds Arena during the post-season.
Another overage leader on the Silvertips got the scoring started in the first. On the rush, Sean Richards dropped a pass to Matt Fonteyne, who found his longtime linemate Patrick Bajkov at the back post.
Tri-City tied the game up with 8:35 left in the first on Morgan Geekie’s first goal since Game 1 and 17th of the playoffs.
Geekie, on the power play, benefited from some nifty stick-handling by Jake Bean to give him the room to beat Everett goalie Carter Hart.
Before the first was over, Everett got a power play goal of their own. Again the goal was scored by Bajkov, his sixth of the series and 13th of the playoffs. He faked a slap shot then skated in and fired a wrist shot by Tri-City overage goalie Patrick Dea.
Tri-City tied the game in the second with the first goal by Kyle Olson this postseason. Defenseman Juuso Vålimåki drove towards the net, drew the defense and then found a wide open Olson for a one-timer.
Then on the power play, Michael Rasmussen fought for a loose puck and banged in the rebound. The marker was his 16th of the playoffs.
Tri-City had a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes. The Americans were being out shot 26-15, yet they were the team with the one-goal lead.
Tri-City was 2-for-2 on the power play and finished the playoffs 17-for-40 or 42.5 per cent.
Olson then netted his second of the game to give Tri-City a 4-2 lead a few minutes into the third. He took a feed from Vålimåki and wired a wrist shot that got by the glove of Hart.
The assist was the fourth of the game for Vålimåki, who had four goals and 13 assists in the playoffs from the blue line for 17 points.
Then under four minutes later, it looked like Game 7 was on the books as a drop pass by Kevin Davis, was expertly read by Jordan Topping. The overage play maker, chipped the puck up the boards to himself and beat Hart five-hole for the 5-2 lead on his fourth of the postseason.
Three-goal lead, with just 11:08 to go in regulation. In years past for Everett, that would be a death sentence as they earned a reputation as a team that was hard to come back on, but really struggled when faced with a deficit late in a game.
This Everett team is different. They scored thrice in under five minutes to tie the game at five and force overtime.
Hart, who had his head down shortly after the Americans had scored their fifth goal, started a melee with Rasmussen. The incident seemed to spark Everett as their comeback followed the event.
Dewar started the rally as a shot from Wyatte Wylie caromed off the end-boards right to a posted up Dewar. The diminutive winger than flipped the puck up over Dea’s left shoulder to make the score 5-3.
The goal was Dewar’s ninth of the playoffs.
Then Davis made up for his earlier miscue with a nice wrist shot over Dea’s blocker off a face off win by Riley Sutter. That was Davis’ second of the playoffs.
Everett would not need any net-vacating late-game heroics as Garrett Pilon tied the game moments later. A costly turnover by Maxwell James on the half-boards got onto the stick of Pilon and he worked his way towards the net, sliding a shot through Dea’s five-hole. Tie-game.
Tri-City took a timeout right afterwards to help right the ship as the momentum was clearly on the side of the team that had just come back from three down.
They got to overtime, but after Coghlan hauled down Christiansen, the Silvertips power play got a chance in the extra session. Their success rate was just nine of 49 coming into this advantage, but the puck movement was fantastic and Davis had a great look for the winner.
Everett was 2-for-4 on the power play in the game and goes to the WHL final with a 20 per cent rate, 12th of the 16 playoff teams.
Hart stopped 18 of 23 and gave up five goals for the third time this post-season. Both times previously, the Silvertips had lost the game.
Dea’s WHL career comes to an end after he stopped 36 of 42.
Also playing their last WHL games were Topping and James and likely Bean, Vålimåki and Coghlan. The three d-men all have signed NHL contracts and are eligible to play in the AHL as 20-year-olds next year.
Notes:
-Tri-City was led in shots by Olson and Rasmussen who both had four. Everett’s shot leaders were Pilon with eight and Sutter with seven.
-The Silvertips face off leaders were Sutter who went 14-of-27, Fonteyne who was 13-for-22 and Reece Vitelli was won one of four. The Americans’ centers who took the most draws were Nolan Yaremko who was 9-of-22, Geekie who went 8-for-17 and Riley Sawchuk who was 6-of-12.
From the WHL website:
2018 Rogers WHL Championship Series Schedule:
| Game | Visitor | Home | Date | Time | |
| 1 | Everett | @ | Swift Current | Friday, May 4 | 7:00 |
| 2 | Everett | @ | Swift Current | Saturday, May 5 | 7:00 |
| 3 | Swift Current | @ | Everett | Tuesday, May 8 | 7:05 |
| 4 | Swift Current | @ | Everett | Wednesday, May 9 | 7:05 |
| 5 * | Swift Current | @ | Everett | Friday, May 11 | 7:05 |
| 6 * | Everett | @ | Swift Current | Sunday, May 13 | 7:00 |
| 7 * | Everett | @ | Swift Current | Monday, May 14 | 7:00 |
* If necessary
