(Everett, WA) The top two teams in the U.S. Division standings met for the fifth time in 2019-2020. Saturday, the Everett Silvertips (36-12-3-1) played host to the Portland Winterhawks (38-8-3-4) at the Angel of the Winds Arena.
Before the season ends, three more games will be played between the rivals.
The last time Portland visited, its 21-game points streak came to an end behind a 4-3 Silvertips win.
Saturday, Everett used a three-goal second period to fuel a 4-1 win and close the gap in the U.S. Division to seven points.
To start the game, the Silvertips had the early jump as they put pressure on Portland’s defense. The Everett forecheck caused a few turnovers leading to opportunities.
Jake Christiansen held onto the puck to the right of Hofer before looking to his right and spotting Dawson Butt entering the zone. From the slot, the Buckley, Washington, native beat Joel Hofer to the blocker side.
The assist for Christiansen was his eighth in his last eight games (he later added his ninth).
Dawson returned to action on Friday after having his 12-game suspension reduced to ten.
Silvertips head coach Dennis Williams spoke about the return of his six-foot-one, 200-pound, forward, “He is a heart and sole guy, every team has got those guys. He is a great young man. For the last month he has worked extremely hard, put in a lot, a lot of work during his time out. I think he definitely elevated our group and scored the big goal and set up the one to Justyn Gurney there. I thought (Friday) he struggled a little bit, but he had been off for a month, so that is normally going to happen. He looked a lot more comfortable and back to being how Dawson has been playing to finish off the year.”
As he has consistently done for the Winterhawks, Seth Jarvis got his side back into the game. The speedy winger poked a 50/50 puck by an Everett defender at the blue line, leading to a partial two-on-zero rush with Jaydon Dureau. At the last possible second, Jarvis got a pass by an outstretched Silvertips stick to Dureau. The 18-year-old still had work to do in order to beat Dustin Wolf. By elevating the puck high enough, Dureau scored his 16th goal of the season before crashing into the boards.
Simon Knak, Cross Hanas, and Gable Klassen were able to put together a strong offensive zone shift. Everett, led by a few saves from Wolf, was able to keep the Winterhawks off the scoreboard.
Only one penalty was called in the opening period, on Portland, but 1:29 carried over into the second period.
Everett needed 1:58 of the two-minute power play, but was able to find the back of the net. Kasper Puutio sent a point shot towards the net and Jackson Berezowski was positioned perfectly in front. The goal gave the 2002-born forward 16 goals on the season.
For Mike Johnston — Winterhawks head coach — this was the turning point in the game. “The two power-play goals were really key for them. I thought we had a great first period, then, in the second, that power play was really key form them to go up like that. They have a really good power play, they are top in the league. On the first one, at the beginning of the second period, they moved it around well. They had a few seam passes and a few chances at the net. Once they grabbed the momentum there, they definitely carried it. After that power-play goal, they had a lot of jump and energy.”
Williams also touched on Berezowski’s power-play tally. “It was huge and gave us the spark to get that second goal too. It was nice to see, it was from that second unit that came out. We were showing a little different look with five different guys out there this week. It is always nice when they get rewarded too. It was a really nice shot there by Kasper (Puutio) and a good net front by Jackson. It kind of gave us the momentum we needed.”
Everett capitalized a second time while the momentum was clearly favoring the home side.
On a bouncing puck at the Portland blue line, Johnny Ludvig was unable to cleanly get the puck out of his skates. Everett raced towards Hofer and Justyn Gurney got his fifth of the season on a perfect pass from Dawson Butt.
Portland had an opportunity to take some life out of the 7,483 fans in the building when they got a power play. While the Winterhawks were able to get a few shots on net, Wolf answered everything sent his way in the second period.
Johnston mentioned, “We needed to capitalize on our chances and make it harder for Wolf to make those saves.”
A cross-checking penalty on the Winterhawks gave the Silvertips another opportunity on the man advantage. Once again, Portland almost got the kill. Gage Goncalves scored his 28th of the 2019-2020 season with one second left on the minor penalty.
Unfortunately for Everett, play was stopped when Jackson Berezowski was down on the ice. He was helped off and down the tunnel, and did not return to the game. There was no update on his status from Everett head coach Dennis Williams, who said, “I saw him quick but haven’t spoken with our doctors yet.”
The three goal outburst in the second period gave the Silvertips a 4-1 lead when the second-period horn sounded.
Neither team found the twine in the third period and only 16 combined shots were put on net as Everett eliminated Portland’s time and space.
“Overall, I thought there was a lot of loose puck battles. We need to be better in battle areas, in the competitive areas, and in time and space,” Johnston said. “It was a close game. I know it was 4-1, but I didn’t think it was a 4-1 game.”
Another area of their game Williams was proud of, “Our forwards and defense did a good job blocking pucks and took a lot of pride in that tonight. Against a team like that, if you are not willing to sacrifice the body, they are going to beat you. Overall, I thought from the forwards to the defense, and when there were lapses, Dustin was there to make the saves, we played well.”
Portland returns home to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Sunday to face the Moose Jaw Warriors.
This is the first and only time the Winterhawks will see Moose Jaw. “We don’t know them very well, but they are going to be rested,” Johnston said knowing the Warriors were already at a Portland-area hotel on Saturday. “We have to hopefully play at the pace that we can. In the three-in-threes we’ve had so far this year, I think we have been good in game three.”
Everett’s next opponent is also the Warriors, who visit the Silvertips on Wednesday.
