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WHL Everett Silvertips

Behind Hart, Silvertips Trip Kamloops

January 21, 2016 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Everett Silvertips News Release


KAMLOOPS, B.C. - One day after earning the NHL Central Scouting's #1 ranking for North American goalies, Carter Hart posted 33 saves for his league leading 27th victory and help the Everett Silvertips edge the Kamloops Blazers, 2-1 before 4,380 fans at Sandman Centre on Wednesday night.

The Silvertips improved to 9-0-2 over the last 11 games and restored their seven-point lead over Seattle for first place in the U.S. Division on Matt Fonteyne's game winning goal, his 11th, to tie Carson Stadnyk for second on the Tips. Hart's counterpart, Connor Ingram, stopped 25 shots for Kamloops.

In the second meeting of the season between both teams, Quinn Benjafield's fifth goal of the year, a ricochet at the net that landed on his tape, put Kamloops ahead 1-0 at 2:47 but the Tips responded just over nine minutes later.

Patrick Bajkov dangled to the left goal line, off the rush, and fed a tape-to-tape pass to Graham Millar, who re-directed the feed past Ingram at the goal mouth for a 1-1 tie at 10:15.

Following a scoreless second period, the Silvertips cashed in off a fortunate bounce, seconds following Matt Fonteyne's foiled last-second breakaway. After Fonteyne's backhander slid off the right post, the Kamloops defense crashed the net and erroneous kicked the puck into their own net, giving Fonteyne his 11th goal at the 3:43 mark.

Hart took over, stopping several good looks and the Tips defense collapsed on Kamloops' crashing forwards to steer a loose puck out the paint with a minute to play. Everett had to withstand one last Kamloops rush, on an extra-attacker, six-on-four power play, but Fonteyne's clearing attempt with three seconds left sealed the win.

The Silvertips earned their 10th straight win over Kamloops, since Kevin Constantine's return behind the bench in 2013-14.

SILVERTIPS STARTING LINES

Leedahl - Laurencelle - Stadnyk

Ralph - Fonteyne - Bajkov

Dewar - Winkler - King

Ralph - Skoleski - Gerth

SILVERTIPS D-PAIRINGS

Skrumeda - Juulsen

MacDonald - Davis

Martin - Pfeifer

BOX SCORE | GAME AUDIO

NOTES: Scratches for the Silvertips included Mackenzie Dwyer, Riley Sutter, Jake Christiansen and Yan Khomenko ... Everett improved to 12-4-2-2 in one-goal games ... Hart is 8-0-1 since Dec. 30 with a .945 save percentage ... Fonteyne has four points and a +3 rating in the last six games.

The Silvertips four game road trip continues Friday, in their final all-time regular season visit to Rexall Place against the host Edmonton Oil Kings, starting at 6:00 p.m. (1380 AM/WHL Live). Silvertips radio play-by-play voice Mike Benton has coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m. with the Everett Bone & Joint Pregame Show.

Everett's next home game is Saturday, Jan. 30 against the Seattle Thunderbirds at 7:05 p.m. Local Heroes Night, highlighting the game, encourages fans to purchase tickets for fundraising efforts supporting the Snohomish County Law Enforcement Memorial Fund (SCLEMF) and Everett Medic One Foundation.

Check out the Everett Silvertips Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from January 21, 2016


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