Chris Mast

Another overtime comeback gives Swift Current series lead

Everett, WA –

After uncharacteristically blowing a 3-0 first lead in Game, the Everett Silvertips looked like they had gotten back into form on home ice Angel of the Winds Arena and were shutting down the vaunted Swift Current Broncos attack, beating them 2-1 in Game 3 with under five minutes left.

Add to that the fact that they were going on the power play and you had then recipe for another 2-1 win in the series for the Silvertips.

Instead Everett made a couple poor passes on the power play and watched Swift Current spring themselves on consecutive odd-man rushes while short-handed.

(Photo by Christopher Mast/Everett Silvertips)

On the second one, Beck Malenstyn and Glenn Gawdin skated in on a 2-on-1 and Gawdin’s shot created a rebound that skipped off to Hart’s left. Gawdin dove for the puck and somehow deflected the puck top shelf on Hart, forcing overtime for the second straight game in the series.

Overtime is where the Broncos have thrived as they have won four of six now in the extra session.

Gawdin took the feed from Steenbergen in the slot and wired a shot that Hart got a piece of, but could not stop all of. The goal was Gawdins’ third of the night, giving him a hat-trick.

Broncos head coach Manny Viveiros praised Gawdin’s three-goal night. “Glenn has been our guy all year. Throughout the season he’s always stepped up for us and that is what we expect of him,” Viveiros said.

Swift Current now leads the best-of-seven series 2-1, with both of their wins coming in overtime and in games where they trailed as the game was growing old.

Viveiros was again impressed with his team’s resilience.

“I thought tonight was our best game of the series. I like the way we played. We played real fast. We got in on the forecheck and we did a lot of good things. No question about it, Everett played well too and goaltending was good on both sides again tonight. It’s a fine line right now between winning and losing and we are just fortunate that we got the extra goal both times,” Viveiros said.

Stuart Skinner again played his best when his team was trailing and he stopped 37–of-39.

Hart again saw a rebound lead to the tying goal and was beaten again from the slot. He turned away 29-of-32 in the loss.

The Silvertips were led by goals by Riley Sutter and Matt Fonteyne and two assists by Jake Christiansen.

Even more bad news for the Silvertips is that their franchise’s leading scorer Patrick Bajkov left the game due to an unknown ailment. Everett head coach Dennis Williams would not give a status update on Bajkov after the game.

Swift Current broke Everett’s 12-game streak of scoring first as Aleksi Heponiemi fed Glenn Gawdin with a slick drop pass and the Broncos captain wired a shot by Hart for his 10th of the postseason.

The goal came right after Connor Dewar struck the right post in behind Skinner and it seemed like the Broncos may have taken some of the momentum form their comeback in Game 2 to finally start playing with the lead in the WHL Championship.

Instead Everett found an answer just one minute later.

The Silvertips second line, which has given the Broncos fits so far in the series created a nice cycle and tied the score with 4:16 left in the first.

Dewar found Garrett Pilon, who dropped it back for a hard shot by Christiansen that was tipped by Riley Sutter and found its way by Skinner.

The marker was Sutter’s second of the series and eighth of the playoffs.

The goal was reviewed to see if Sutter had struck the puck with a high stick, but after review the goal stood and we had a 1-1 score.

The animosity between the two sides, who besides the first two games in the series have only seen each other once this year started to grow late in the first as Giorgio Estephan went out of his way to have words with Hart.

With 1:25 left in the period, Matt Fonteyne circled the net and threw the puck into a mess of bodies – two Swift Current forwards and one Everett Silvertip. The puck struck Tanner Nagel’s skate and slipped by Skinner for Fonteyne’s second of the series and eighth of the postseason.

EVERETT, WA –   (Photo by Christopher Mast/Everett Silvertips)

In the second, Everett pressed the issue early with Skinner being forced to make a nice stick save on Davis.

Then they drew a power play as Sissons high-sticked Bajkov.

Just 18 seconds into the power play, Dewar hit Bajkov with a cross-crease pass and the Everett sniper had a wide open net to shoot at. He hurried the shot and did not get a lot of the puck, causing the puck to slide under the net that had risen off of its moorings as Skinner pushed off the opposite post to get over.

After review, the goal was waved off, much to the disappointment of the 4,872 fans in attendance.

This was the second time that Everett’s fans saw a puck go in the net off the stick of Bajkov and not count on the scoreboard as Sean Richards was called for boarding and Swift Current’s Josh Anderson was called for slashing causing the whistle to blow right before Bajkov’s shot beat Skinner in the first period.

Both goalies were pressed into making some saves later in the second as Hart and his defense were able to push a dangerous looking puck off to the side and out of danger with Broncos defenseman Sahvan Khaira looming near the crease.

Skinner also had to dive across to get his glove on a shot by Fonteyne.

Skinner knows what he is facing with Everett and is aware that he always has to be on his toes. Their second goal came off a skate and the Silvertips appeared to be looking to create more that way.

“It was kind of a tough bounce for me. Honestly I would have played it the exact same way again. I lost sight of the puck when he just threw it in and I thought it was going to come out the other side. I was focusing on where the puck was headed and the fans started cheering,” Skinner said.

Skinner was again at his best when his team trailed (Photo by Christopher Mast/Everett Silvertips)

For the third time in as many games in the series, Swift Current entered the third period trailing and with only one goal to their name.

Viveiros knows that his team believes in itself. “We know that we are never out of it. We certainly don’t want to go down three goals like we did the other night. Against a good hockey team like Everett, we felt fortunate we got a win in that one but we feel like if we keep ourselves close we can get back into games,” Viveiros said.

The third period saw both teams absent their leading regular season scorers at different points as both Heponiemi and Bajkov walked off with their team’s trainers.

Heponiemi returned after missing just one shift but Bajkov did not return to the ice until there was under five minutes remaining in regulation. He did not skate any shifts in overtime.

Luke Ormsby skated in his place with Fonteyne and Sean Richards.

Swift Current only had three shots on net through the first 11 minutes of the third as Everett continued to sit back and make them beat them. Malenstyn nearly did on a rush they did get but he hit the post with 8:55 left off a slick move to open a shot for himself.

Malenstyn continued to create chances for his Broncos and made the pass to Gawdin that caused this game to be tied again.

Gawdin praised Malenstyn with creating the look for him to tie the game down a man. “Beck – with his speed creates lots of space and for me I just tried to get open. Short-handed or 5-on-5, you’re trying to get some chances and shots at net. It ended up being 1-on-1 for me and I shot it and it came out and lucky for me I’m a right handed guy and I got a chance on the rebound,” Gawdin said.

Everett had some chances late to end this one in regulation, but Skinner stood tall in the Broncos net, giving us another thrilling sudden death finish.

They would rue those missed opportunities as just 2:42 into the extra session and with Bajkov resigned to sitting on the bench, Gawdin provided the heroics with his 12th of the playoffs.

Swift Current failed to capitalize on their one power play, while Everett was 0-for-4.

Notes:

-Game 4 goes Wednesday and with the status of Bajkov a major question, Everett faces a pretty tall task.

-Fonteyne led Everett in shots with seven while Gawdin’s led the way for Swift Current with eight.

-This is the second time a Swift Current forward has scored all three of his team’s goals with the last coming in overtime as Estephan did the same in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final against Lethbridge.

-The short-handed goal was the first given up by Everett this postseason.

-Gawdin was 16-of-31 on face offs for Swift Current, while Estephan went 3-for-12 and Matteo Gennaro was 9-of-19.

-Sutter was 10-for-25 for Everett and Fonteyne was 20-for-31. Reece Vitelli was 5-of-10 as well.