Tips come up just short vs T-Birds
EVERETT, WA – The Everett Silvertips held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 but couldn’t finish off a victory in their 2011 “Pink the Rink” game
Friday night at Comcast Arena, falling 3-2 to the Seattle Thunderbirds in front of 6,544 pink-clad Silvertips fans. The Silvertips will now open up a nine-game road trip Saturday night in Spokane and won’t play another home game until November 11.
Jari Erricson and Josh Birkholz had goals for Everett, who led for most of the game before Seattle’s Marcel Noebels scored two second period powerplay goals to tie it. The T-Birds then tallied the only goal of the third to win for the fourth time in their past five games.
The Silvertips scored the first goal less than five minutes into the game when Jari Erricson tipped in a point shot by Evan Morden to make it 1-0. Everett controlled most of the period and outshot the T-Birds 10-6, but wasn’t able to capitalize on either of their two power-play opportunities and led 1-0 after the first 20 minutes.
Everett got into penalty trouble at the start of the second period and then Marcel Noebels scored through traffic on a wrist shot from the top of the circle to even the score at one. Josh Birkholz gave the Silvertips the lead once again when he skated the puck ahead on a 2- on-1 and sent a perfect wrist shot from the top of the circle that beamed over the shoulder of Seattle goaltender Calvin Pickard. Noebels would once again tie the game up for Seattle with another power-play goal almost identical to his first, and the teams headed to the dressing room tied at two.
After the ‘Tips killed off a penalty to start the final frame, Seattle got their first even strength goal of the night when a rebound chance bounced right to Burke Gallimore, who was able to bang it home from between the circles for the go-ahead score. Everett put ten shots on net in the third period, but couldn’t get another one past Pickard despite a few good chances in the final minutes.
Kent Simpson (2-6-0-2) finished with 25 saves, while Calvin Pickard (4-3-0-0) had 27 as Everett outshot Seattle 29-28. The Thunderbirds scored on 2 of 5 powerplays however, holding the Silvertips scoreless on three opportunities.
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The Silvertips will now embark on their longest road trip of the season, starting with Saturday’s 7:05 pm opening puck drop in Spokane against the Chiefs. Live radio coverage on Fox Sports 1380 AM begins at 6:30 pm. The ‘Tips will then visit ShoWare Center to face the Thunderbirds again Sunday at 5:05 before departing for their Central Division swing through Alberta. Everett will start that portion of the road trip Wednesday night in Edmonton against the Oil Kings.
