This year’s match up between the Everett Silvertips and Tri-City Americans marks just the fourth time the two have met in the playoffs in the 15 years they have co-existed and the first time in the Western Conference Final.
All three previous match ups occurred in the first round with the higher-seeded team winning in five games or less.
2012 Tri-City 4-0 in the first round
Brendan Shinnimin, Adam Hughesman and Patrick Holland led the attack up front and Ty Rimmer stood tall in the net for the top-seed in the Western Conference Americans.
The Ams won both games at home, then Rimmer shut out the Silvertips in Everett before Tri-City finalized the sweep with an overtime win in Game 4.
Ryan Murray led the Silvertips in scoring in the series with five points and Kent Simpson tried to hold back the high-powered Americans in Everett’s net.
2009 Tri-City 4-1 in the first round
The year before the Americans made a run all the way to the WHL Final, they beat the Silvertips in the first round before falling to the eventual league champion Kelowna Rockets.
The Ams took Game 1 at home 6-5 in overtime before dropping Game 2. They then went to Everett and won both, before closing out at the Toyota Center 6-1 in Game 5.
Mitch Fadden, who came over from the Lethbridge Hurricanes was the leading scorer for the Americans in the playoffs, while Chet Pickard manned the net,
Everett’s top scorers in the postseason were Tyler Maxwell and Taylor Ellington while Thomas Heemskerk was their backstop.
2006 Everett 4-1 in the first round
This was the lone time the Silvertips have beaten the Americans in the playoffs.
This time it was the Silvertips who had home-ice. They opened the series with a shutout by goalie Leland Irving, before dropping Game 2 by a score of 2-1. The Silvertips then won in overtime in Game 3, before completing the road sweep with a 4-1 victory in Game 4. Irving then shutout the Ams again in Game 5 at home to finish them off.
The Sivlertips would go on to the Conference Final before falling to the eventual league champion Vancouver Giants.
Everett was led by Zach Hamill, Shaun Heshka and Peter Mueller, while the Americans had names like Jason Beeman and Carey Price on their roster.
