Silvertips Defeat Cougars In Shootout Thriller
January 10, 2009 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Everett Silvertips News Release
Everett, WA - Shane Harper and Kellan Tochkin took charge in Friday night's shootout leading their team to a 3-2 victory of the Prince George Cougars. Friday's victory continues Everett's hot streak in the shootout making the silvertips undefeated in all three shootout games this season (@ Vancouver 10/15/08, Vs. Tri-City 10/28/08). Thomas Heemskerk had 19 saves in regulation and stopped four of five shots in the shootout improving his record to 9-7-2-2. Zack Dailey rounded out the scoring in regulation with his fourth of the season on the power play.
This brings the 'Tips record to 19-16-5-0 with 43 points in 30 games played standing six points behind second place Spokane Chiefs in the U.S. Division. The Silvertips are now 5-5-0-0 in their last 10 games. Everett has two more games this weekend, Saturday night at Spokane and Sunday night in Portland.
Prince George wasted no time taking advantage of their first power play of the game. The Cougars got on the board first when a Cameron Cepek slap shot missed wide and rebounded in front of the crease to Alex Poulter who then dropped the puck to Brian Matte in front beating a diving Heemskerk at 3 minutes 11 seconds. Prince George controlled most of the play through the first period until the Silvertips answered with just seven seconds left in the frame. Harper scored his 18th goal of the year after a fanned Daniel Bartek shot landed right on Harper's stick on the side of the crease to even up the score after 20 minutes of play.
The Cougars found a way to regain the lead early in the second period after Matte earned his second goal of the night at 5:10. Matte skated into the 'Tips zone and took a hard slap shot from the top of the faceoff circle that beat Heemskerk clean, top shelf glove side, giving the Cougars a 2-1 lead. Everett added to their WHL ninth ranked power play at 13:35 after a Cepek cross-checking penalty. Harper threw a backhand shot on net that rebounded off Joe Caligiuri's pad and right to Zack Dailey. Dailey then buried the puck top shelf tying the game 2-2. Everett outshot Prince George 8-7 in the second period and would lead in shots 17-15 after 40 minutes.
After a closely played first half of the third period, Heemskerk kept the scored tied at two after a great diving save on a Brett Connolly breakaway at 10:36. Both the Cougars and Silvertips played a tight game the rest of regulation. Cepek earned his second consecutive cross-checking penalty with 4.2 seconds left in regulation, and would give Everett a 4 on 3 man advantage to start overtime.
Prince George killed off five shots and an Everett power play in overtime to send the game into a shootout. The Cougars scored first in the shootout after a Brett Connolly goal and seemed to have the game at hand after two missed Everett shots (Paul Van de Velde, Daniel Bartek), yet Tochkin scored on Everett's final attempt and Heemskerk stopped Marek Viedensky to go to extra shooters. After a Tyler Maxwell miss and a Brian Matte miss, Harper scored five-hole past Caligiuri and Heemskerk stopped the Cougar's final attempt to give Everett the 3-2 victory.
The Silvertips come back to Comcast Arena this Friday, January 16th at 7:35 pm to take on U.S. Division rival Seattle Thunderbirds! Tickets are on sale now at the new everettsilvertips.com and at the Comcast Arena Box Office! For ticket information, including season seats and ticket packages, please call the Silvertips' front office at (425) 252-5100.
As always, radio coverage of Silvertips hockey will be provided by North Sound 1380 KRKO, while highlights of audio broadcast, video packages and relevant multimedia will be provided by the Western Hockey League's website, www.whl.ca.
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Western Hockey League Stories from January 10, 2009
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