Sasha Mutala was a player to behold at the Everett Silvertips preseason tournament a few weekends ago. He had back-to-back three point games en route to a six-point, two-game weekend.
Maybe he just likes playing in Everett or maybe this is a sign the Colorado Avalanche-drafted prospect is primed for a huge season.
Regardless of why, he set up the first three Tri-City Americans (1-0) goals on Friday night in Everett. Mutala then sealed the game with an empty-net marker for his first ever four-point game in the WHL in a 4-2 win over the defending U.S. Division champion Everett Silvertips (0-1).
Nikita Krivokrasov, who had three career WHL goals in 37 games played with the Prince Albert Raiders coming into this season, had two goals in his first regular season game with Tri-City since coming to the team as a listed player.
New team captain Bryce Kindopp had two points for Everett.
“We let our foot off the pedal there in the second period and they gained some momentum. We did some really good things, but we also have a lot of things to work on as well,” Kindopp told everettsilvertips.com.
Everett actually got the scoring going on a power play 4:24 into the season. Ronan Seeley started the rush and Wyatte Wylie fed Reece Vitelli going down the wing. The center fired a nifty pass across to 17-year-old forward Jackson Berezowski, who beat goalie Beck Warm for the 1-0 lead.
Warm kept it a one-goal game in the second period with a marvelous stop on Reece Vitelli as the Everett power play was coming to a close.
Dustin Wolf turned away 20-of-23 shots in net for Everett, while Warm was good for 28 saves on 30 Everett attempts.
That Warm second period stop was key.
On a power play of their own with 8:33 left in the second, Krivoskrasov tied the game for Tri-City. He was right there for the rebound of a Mutala shot, scoring his first WHL goal since 3/13/2018. He spent the entire 2018-19 WHL season outside of the WHL, playing in the USHL and NAHL.
Krivoskrasov proved he is back to stay with another goal 1:52 into the third. After a nice outlet pass from Connor Bouchard, Mutala took the puck inside the Everett zone and fired an incredible backhand feed right to a speeding Krivokrasov. The forward then went forehand-backhand to beat Dustin Wolf.
Tri-City took a two-goal lead on another power-play goal. Mutala burst up the ice, and after fighting off Everett captain Bryce Kindopp, whipped a pass to a driving Samuel Huo. The former Seattle Thunderbirds forward drilled a shot by Wolf for a 3-1 lead.
“What you saw was they were a bigger, stronger, faster team. I thought they had heavier sticks than we did. They won a lot of the board battles,” Everett head coach Dennis Williams summed up for everettsilvertips.com.
“They did a good job of capitalizing their game plan, and we had some looks and they didn’t result in goals.”
Kindopp got the ‘Tips back within one midway through the third. He spun off the boards and flew to the net, beating Warm glove-side. That made it 3-2 with plenty of time left for the home team to come back.
Unfortunately for them, Mutala was not done. After Everett pulled Wolf for an extra attacker, he took advantage of an Everett turnover at their own blue line, burying his first goal of the night, but fourth point. That made it a 4-2 Tri-City final.
Tri-City heads down I-5 to take on the Portland Winterhawks, while Everett hosts the Victoria Royals on Saturday.
Game Notes:
-Paycen Bjorklund of Tri-City was given a misconduct for a mouthguard violation with 11:57 left in the second period.
-Tri-City was 2-for-4 on the power play while Everett went 1-of-4.
-Jan Cikhart was credited with two assists — his first points in the WHL.
-Dawson Butt was assessed a late 10-minute misconduct for actions while setting up for a faceoff with one minute left.
-Everett was without overage defenseman Jake Christiansen, who is now with the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL. They also have import forward Martin Fasko-Rudas out long term with an upper body injury. Rookie forward Brendan Lee also missed the game with an illness. Defenseman Gianni Fairbrother is out with an upper body ailment. Michal Gut as listed on the weekly injury report but played in the game.
-Tri-City was missing overage defenseman Dom Schmiemann and 2001-born forward Blake Stevenson due to injuries. Import and overage forward Krystof Hrabik was also scratched along with team captain and fellow overager Kyle Olson.
