The question now being asked is, how good are the Everett Silvertips? After sweeping the Portland Winterhawks and then doing a number on Kelowna, save for one game, the Tips are back at it again after taking two from the Penticton Vees. Everett’s first game, a win over the Vees, saw a 2-0 lead hold until Penticton finally figured out how to get one past Anders Miller three minutes into the third. The Tips restored their two-goal lead five minutes later and added an empty netter for the 4-1 win.
Two days later, back in Everett, the Vees made it challenging. After the Vees snagged the first goal, Everett took two in the period. The Vees then tied it early in the second, and the Tips responded thirteen minutes later. The Vees tied it again early in the third, only to see that tie evaporate just past the middle of the frame. Sometimes it works, and for the Vees it did, as they pulled netminder Andrew Reyelts for the extra man and seconds later were rewarded with the tie. The first extra period was scoreless, with Everett hammering Penticton 17-5 in shots, but they couldn’t get the go-home goal. It would take nearly six minutes into overtime number two to finally get the win. After blasting 7 shots to 0 for the Vees, the Silvertips now lead 2-0 in the series as they head to Penticton for the next two. In Game 2, the Tips went 2-for-3 on the power play and unleashed 53-33 shots against the Vees, showing they have firepower as well as defense.
The Eastern Conference in the two games has been a wild swing, to say the least. It seemed a fairly mundane opener, as Prince Albert scored twice in the first, got one countered by Medicine Hat, to see a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes. After 40, it was 4-2 as Prince Albert scored twice, followed by Medicine Hat. The third was where things fell apart for the Hat. Two more early tallies by the Raiders opened up the game, and despite the Hat getting one back, the Raiders piled on two more for an ugly 8-3 win. The Tigers took five penalties to one for Prince Albert, with the Raiders scoring twice on the power play on those infractions. The Raiders went 3-for-4 on the power play, with the Tigers listed as 0-for-0 on theirs.
The discussion with the Tigers was probably loud and brash, and with a change in netminders, the Tigers were hellbent on redemption. It was almost the opposite of the previous game, and if you attended both, you might have suffered from whiplash. The Tigers scored the only goal of the first and the only two in the second, with Prince Albert unable to find a way to tangle the twine. The Raiders pulled their netminder, only to see that backfire with a goal from behind the goal line. It almost seemed like things were all Tigers, with their fifth goal coming on a strange bounce. 5-0 was the final, and if you do your math, that’s a five-goal swing in the two games. Next up will be a pair in Alberta.
The OHL sees the Kitchener Rangers with a 2-games-to-none lead after a close pair of games decided by a goal against the Windsor Spitfires, and the Brantford Bulldogs with a 2-1 lead in their series after breaking the 1-1 deadlock, with Brantford taking the first game, the Barrie Colts the second, and finally a shutout 2-0 in Game 3. Both series are very close, as one would expect this deep in the playoffs.
The same can be said for the QMJHL, with both series deadlocked at one. The Blainville-Boisbriand Armada went to overtime to take Game 1 and lost in regulation in Game 2 to the Moncton Wildcats with a 5-4 win. Games three and four are at the home of the Armada. The Chicoutimi Saguenéens and Rouyn-Noranda Huskies are also tied at one, with the Huskies taking Game 1 and Chicoutimi Game 2, with the series heading to the home of the Huskies for Games three and four.
It makes playoff hockey exciting, with WHL games on Victory+ and OHL and QMJHL games available through FloHockey.
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