WHL US Division: Everett Silvertips split a pair of games against US Division foes over the weekend

Everett had been playing the waiting game before returning to action over the weekend against US Division rivals Portland and Seattle. The Silvertips had only played four games in the last 22 days before Friday night's contest against Portland. With that much downtime one had to wonder if the Silvertips would struggle to get in rhythm. "It's good for us to have few games to start so we can get our system and what we're doing down," said ‘Tips Captain Dawson Leedahl.

Pinking the Rink - Photo by Jubilee Le

Loss to Portland 2-0

After losing in Portland 5-1, Everett returned home to face the Winterhawks for a second straight time. Despite being outshot by Everett 18-6 in the first period, Portland scored first thanks to a goal from Colton Veloso at 11:16.  Everett had many scoring chances outshooting Portland 31-27, but were unfortunately unable to put one behind Adin Hill. Dominic Turgeon would add and empty net goal to seal the 2-0 victory for Portland. Carter Hart stopped 25-26 shots in the loss.

Defeated Seattle 2-0

The following night Everett would have to face the hottest team in the WHL. Seattle had won six straight after defeating Vancouver the previous night. This was also the first matchup between Everett and their top rival. Everett would be outshot 7-10 and there were many scoring chances on both ends but there was no score after one period. Two minutes into the second period Everett would jump to a 1-0 lead with Connor Dewar scoring off his own rebound. At 15:14, Lucas Skrumeda slapped one past Logan Flodell to increase the lead 2-0. This would be all Carter Hart needed as he turned away 32 shots from Seattle to pick up the win and his second shutout of the season in front of a crowd of 7,311.

Pink the Rink

This was Everett's Seventh annual Pink the Rink game. Players wore special breast cancer awareness jerseys that were auctioned after the game. "It's great what our team does getting the jerseys, selling them with all the proceeds going to breast cancer research, said F Dawson Leedahl on the jerseys. "Anytime you can help out a great cause like that we do everything we can to support."

More Tips news

• Former Silvertip Rasmus Rissanen was called up on Tuesday by the Carolina Hurricanes to serve as an extra defenseman for a game but sent back down to Charlotte immediately following the game.
• Former Silvertip Byron Froese made his NHL debut on Saturday with the Toronto Maple Leafs against Montreal logging 12:50 TOI -2 and 2 SOG.
• Former Silvertips Mirco Mueller was recalled by the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday.