2001-born goaltender Dustin Wolf is doing his best to make the Everett Silvertips faithful forget that this is their last year with Carter Hart. The Philadelphia Flyers prospect has yet to play a game this season after suffering an illness to begin the year.
After throwing up a 38-save performance in his WHL debut on Friday, Wolf stopped 44 of the 46 Portland shots that came his way, leading the Everett Silvertips to a 3-2 win over the Portland Wintwehawks at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Patrick Bajkov capitalized on his goalie standing in his head at the other end of the ice, by breaking down the Portland defense and sneaking a shot past Portland goalie Cole Kehler with 29 seconds left, breaking the 2-2 tie and ensuring that his Silvertips would take home all the points that were given out. The goal was the second on the night for Bajkov.
The chances were there all night for Portland, as they have been in each of the three games in their recent losing streak, but again the opposing goalie was stellar and they failed to convert on many other great opportunities.
Cole Kehler turned away 23 of 26 on his end of the ice.
Portland opened the scoring with a goal from a forward who has been playing a lot of roles for them this season. After Conor MacEachern was able to, just barely keep the puck in and get a shot through, Lane Gilliss jumped on the rebound and backhanded a shot past Wolf. The goal was his first since March 14th.
Everett responded as Kevin Davis uncorked a slap shot and Matt Fonteyne got to the rebound, backhanding a shot along the ice just past Kehler’s right pad.
Everett then took their first lead with 8:21 left in the first on Bajkov’s first goal of the night. They converted when Bajkov found some room in the low slot and while screening Portland’s Ilijah Colina, he wired a wrist shot past Kehler’s blocker.
2-1 is how the game would stand from that point all the way until there was 10:23 left in the final period. That is where Portland found a little magic off the stick of Kieffer Bellows. The New York Islanders prospect extended his point streak to eight games as he got his stick on a shot by Matthew Quigley and deflected the puck past Wolf.
Any hope Portland would have of taking at least one point though would be squashed when Bajkov dashed around Keoni Texeira and Alex Overhardt and scored a hightlight reel goal.
Portland failed to convert on their four power play chances, while Everett failed to convert on their three.
The Winterhawks are back on home ice Wednesday as they look to break their three-game losing streak against the Prince George Cougars.
The Silvertips will head back home and host those same Cougars on Friday.
