(Everett, WA) The Everett Silvertips knew coming into Game 2 of their best-of-seven series with the Tri-City Americans that they would be without team captain Connor Dewar.
The Minnesota Wild drafted and signed forward left during Game 1 and was announced being scratched prior to Game 2. That meant the Silvertips were without the guy counted on as their number one center, after Riley Sutter was hurt towards the end of December.
The depth scoring came through for Everett in a spirited affair as they rolled out to a 4-1 lead and then held off the Americans for a 4-3 win and a 2-0 series advantage.
“There was a lot of penalties called tonight. I thought our guys did a good job of keeping their emotions in check. It was a really good game for us,” Everett head coach Dennis Williams told everettsilvertips.com.
Everett always seemed to find a way to get some scoring from their secondary players and that was again the case in Game 2.
Jake Christiansen and Martin Fasko-Rudas led the way with a goal and an assist each and Bryce Kindopp and Artyom Minuilin had two assists each for Everett. Dustin Wolf also stopped 28-of-31 in net.
“First period I don’t think we came out how we wanted to. In the second we used our intermission and calmed down – really talked about it. We had a great response. That is what happened there. We know what the task is,” Christiansen told everettsilvertips.com.
The game was a chippy one, as seen by the seven power plays for Tri-City and six for Everett. The Silvertips were 1-of-6 and Tri-City went 2-of-7.
“It got emotional out there. That’s fine. That was a good playoff game. It was heated, there were some scuffles. There were hits. We know they will be better for Game 3 and we have to be ready,” Williams said.
Beck Warm again faced more shots than the other goalie and he turned away 35-of-39 shots. In two games now, he has stopped 77-of-86.
The power play was the story of the first period as both teams had opportunities and they both cashed in.
Shortly after Everett was unable to score on a lengthy 5-on-3, Krystof Hrabik opened the scoring on a man advantage of Tri-City’s.
Parker AuCoin took a pass behind the net and backhanded a pass right onto Hrabik’s tape and the first year import buried a shot by Wolf.
Everett answered while Tri-City had a man in the box as Minulin fired a shot low to Warm’s glove from the point. Before it got there, Fasko-Rudas redirected it for his second of the series.
Everett then scored three times in the second period, to hold a 4-1 advantage after 40 minutes.
First, Christiansen took a pass from Kindopp off the rush and beat Warm on the blocker side.
Then 19 seconds later, Gage Goncalves netted his first WHL playoff goal as 16-year-old rookie Jackson Berezowski stole a drop pass behind the Tri-City net and found his fellow rookie in front.
Lastly Robbie Holmes went to the back post and was found by Max Patterson off the rush.
Things got wild with just over a minute left in the period as Tri-City defenseman Dom Schmiemann got tied up with Everett’s Zack Andrusiak and gave the overage forward a shot to the head area while he was laying on the net.
Everett ended up with a four minute power play and seemed set up to put the game away.
Instead Nolan Yaremko beat Wolf on a shorthanded rush to cut the lead down to 4-2, 2:36 into the third.
Then Aaron Hyman blasted a shot by Wolf on the power play with 1:02 left and the lead was down to one for Everett.
That was as close as they would get though as Wolf and the Silvertips held off the Americans and held home ice with a 4-3 win and a 2-0 series lead.
The series switches to Kennewick for Game 3 on Wednesday.
Game Notes:
-Schmiemann may hear from the WHL and face a suspension for supplemental discipline.
Tri-City's Dom Schmiemann gives a prone Zack Andrusiak (Everett) a cross check to the face. This led to a near line brawl. pic.twitter.com/zZjNmz39Gs
— Brandon Rivers (@BriversWHL) March 24, 2019
-Everett was led in shots by Patterson’s seven, while Tri-City had Kyle Olson fire eight.
-Patterson took 29 draws and won 15 of them. Reece Vitelli won 10-of-17 and Goncalves won 6-of-10.
-Tri-City had Yaremko win 9-of-20, Riley Sawchuk took 8-of-14 and Kyle Olson was 5-for-10.
-Tri-City is now 2-for-9 on the power play in the series, while Everett is 2-of-10.
-Wolf has stopped 49-of-53 shots in the playoffs.
