Silvertips Edge Winterhawks 3-2 for First Win in Everett over Portland in Almost a Year

King got the game-winner Wednesday

The Everett Silvertips and Portland Winterhawks met for the seventh time this year and played yet another tight game that came down to the final seconds. Ultimately, Everett exercised some demons at Xfinity Arena, winning over Portland for the first time there since 2/8/15. Everett got another game-winner from a rookie in Brian King, who notched the deciding goal with under four minutes to play.

Portland opened the scoring in the game, on one of the easiest goals they will get this year. Carter Hart went to go play the puck to the side of his net and threw a blind pass into the slot, right onto the stick of Portland's Rihards Buakrts. The Latvian sniper put it home for his fourth goal in his last two games vs. Everett.

In the second period, Adin Hill gave up a pretty poor goal of his own to help Everett tie the game. While on the power play. Dawson Leedahl, walked through the slot and fired an un-screened shot on Hill that the 19-year-old goalie let slowly slip through his five-hole for the tying goal. The Silvertips added another power play goal later in the period, as Matt Fonteyne just got the puck on net and Graham Miller and Connor Dewar both got shots at the rebound. Dewar got it past Hill and gave Everett their first lead of the game. A great cycle shift by Portland's fourth line helped turn the momentum later and Portland capitalized as a Brendan De Jong point shot created a rebound and Rodrigo Abols was turned away, but Dominic Turgeon was able to slide it past Carter Hart to tie the score.

Everett and Portland traded chances throughout the third period, but it was Everett rookie Brian King who got the game-winner. Linemates Dario Winkler and Connor Dewar won the puck away, in the corner, from Jack Dougherty, after the defenseman could not get the puck out. Then King pounced on the puck in the low slot and fired a sneaky looking shot that Adin Hill did not see in time to catch with his glove. Portland pulled Adin HIll for an extra attacker with under 90 seconds to play and got two great chances that Hart turned aside, as well as, others that sacrificing Everett players blocked away.

This was Everett's third win in the season series, which means Portland now leads the season series 4-3. Portland has now tied their season high three game losing streak yet again.

Adin Hill stopped 21 of 24 in subpar performance for him, while Hart stopped 25 of 27.

Portland only got one power play on the least penalized team in the league and could not convert. Meanwhile, Everett converted on two of their three opportunities.

Making matters worse, Spokane beat Vancouver 6-2 and Seattle beat Kamloops 3-1. So, Portland is now three points behind Spokane for third in the U.S. Division and seven points behind Seattle for second.

Game Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	F/O	F/O %	Hits	BKS	PIM
Abols	0	1	1	3	-	-	4	0	2
Turgeon	1	0	1	4	13/25	52%	4	1	0
Iverson	0	0	0	2	-	-	5	0	0
Bukarts	1	0	1	2	-	-	1	0	2
Glass	0	0	0	0	9/15	0%	0	1	0
Schoenborn	0	0	0	1	-	-	7	0	0
McKenzie	0	0	0	2	1/3	33.3%	3	1	0
Overhardt	0	0	0	1	9/10	90%	4	0	0
Veloso	0	0	0	1	-	-	3	0	2
Clayton	0	0	0	1	-	-	4	1	0
Hughes	0	0	0	0	2/6	33.3%	3	1	0
Weinger	0	0	0	2	-	-	3	0	0
Heinrich	0	0	0	1	-	-	7	1	0
Jones	0	0	0	1	-	-	5	0	0
Texeira	0	0	0	1	-	-	7	2	0
Dougherty	0	0	0	4	-	-	2	0	0
Czaikowski	0	0	0	1	-	-	3	1	0
De Jong	0	1	0	0	-	-	1	0	0

Game Notes:
-Remi Laurencelle was out of the lineup for Everett, serving the second game of a two-game suspension for a hit he put in on Seattle d-man Jerret Smith last week.
-To make matters worse for Everett, Carson Stadnyk lost an edge while receiving a hit from Blake Heinrich in the second period. He went down on the ice, had to be helped off and did not return to the game.
-Getting game-winners from rookies is nothing new to Everett, as they got an OT winner and two other game-winners last month from fellow rookie Connor Dewar.
-One of the best games of the year for Ryan Hughes, Evan Weinger and Brett Clayton as a unit. They had two different great shifts, that helped stem the tide, as Everett had been controlling play. You can definitely tell that coach Jamie Kompon is starting to trust them more and more as the season goes on. Clayton also hit the post on a nifty looking  backhand for Portland.
-Adin Hill had two good game in the previous two losses for Portland, but a solid effort from him tonight, would have gotten Portland the win. Hill was making his 16th straight start and cannot be expected to be at his best every one of those games.
-Caleb Jones appears to be getting more comfortable with jumping into the play offensively. He is not getting caught deep as often now and is making the transitions look a lot more seamless.
-One thing I've noticed about Jones, is that when he carries the puck deep, he seems to not know what to do creatively. In this game, he backhanded the puck into the slot, which turned possession over and started play the other way for Everett.
-Bukarts had one of the best looking chances of the night on a three-on-two in the third period (before King's goal), but simply lost the puck off of his stick,  while looking up to make a play. Bukarts has struggled with his shot recently and is not having the same success he had a couple of months ago.

Winterhawks in the NHL:

-Braydon Coburn had an assist in Tampa Bay's 2-1 win over Detroit.
-Ty Rattie was sent back down to Chicago of the AHL, after a one-game call up, during which he was scratched.

Winterhawks in the ECHL:

-Kevin Young scored for Reading and Cam Reid had an assist, as they edged Manchester 6-4. Gasper Kopitar had an assist in the Monarchs' loss.
-Miles Koules notched his third career professional goal as Quad City shut out Rapid City 4-0.
-Alaska blew out Idaho 6-1 in a big night for the Aces. William Wrenn had two goals and an assist, Patrick Wellar had two assists and Garrett Haar returned to the lineup after a one-game suspension.