Power Play Leads Everett Past Winter Hawks, 5-3

The Winter Hawks “Skills Challenge” will be held on Sunday at noon with free admission and free parking.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

EVERETT, Wash. - Moises Gutierrez scored 4 goals, 3 of them on the power play, to lead the Everett Silvertips to a 5-3 come from behind win over the Portland Winter Hawks Wednesday at the Everett Events Center.

Everett spent most of the night, especially the third period, in the Portland zone and overcame a brilliant goaltending performance by Portland goalie Kurtis Mucha, who finished with 50 saves in the loss.

Portland led 3-1 after the first period as Mucha stopped 22 first period shots and Teegan Moore, Viktor Sjodin and Nick Hotson beat a shaky Everett goalie, Leland Irving, at the other end.

Peter Mueller had 3 assists for Everett, all on the power play, as Everett went (4-12) with the man advantage.

Portland, (14-31-1-1), has Everett scheduled for a rematch in Memorial Coliseum Friday at 7:30 PM.

That starts a big weekend of hockey in Portland.

The Hawks host the Chilliwack Bruins on Saturday for “Mascot Hockey Night” with a 7:30 PM face-off in the Coliseum.

The Winter Hawks “Skills Challenge” will be held Sunday at noon, also in Memorial Coliseum, with free admission and free parking.

Everett, (37-7-0-2), has not lost in regulation since Portland became the only team in the league this season to beat them in regulation at the Everett Events Center, 3-1, on January 12th.

They lead the U.S. Division by 17 points over Tri-Cities. The Silvertips were coming into Wednesday’s game off an interesting weekend.

They beat Vancouver 4-2 on home ice last Friday, the game ending in a line brawl and the two teams combining for 154 penalty minutes.

Then, they went red hot Tri-Cities on Saturday and lost, 3-2, in a shootout.

Finally, on Sunday, they went to Vancouver and beat the Giants, 6-5 in another shootout.

In that game, Coach Kevin Constantine was ejected in a game for the second time this season, an automatic $750 fine from the Western Hockey League.

Everett was well short of full strength for the weekend as a flu bug has run rampant through their roster.

On Wednesday, the Silvertips scratched only Ondrej Fiala due to the flu along with Jonathan Harty (lower body), Lukas Vartovnik (lower body), Graham Potuer (broken wrist), and goaltender David Reekie (ankle).

Portland scratched Colton Sceviour, still out for 3-5 weeks with a broken foot, Ty Ariss (out for season) and defenseman Devon Marshall (numbers).

The Hawks got off to a great start as Moore won a face off and then beat two Silvertips to the net to take a back door pass from Hotson and redirect it inside the left post at 1:57.

Gutierrez tied it as all 4 of his goals were scored from right in the front of the net, all on the power play, all off either rebounds or blocked shots.

One of them was off a shot from the outside that hit him and he picked up the puck, wheeled around, and lifted a shot just under the crossbar.

Portland took a 3-1 lead when Sjodin scored from the high slot, about a 50 foot shot, that hit the crossbar behind Irving and bounced in.

Then Hotson flipped a shot over the fallen Irving on the power play, converting a Frazer McLaren pass.

Everett outshot Portland 23-11 in the first period.

The Hawks had a little more of the play in the second, but few of their 12 shots were very threatening as Gutierrez scored on a 5-on-3 and then on the ensuing 5-on-4 to tie the game.

Portland had 2 power play chances in the second period too, but could not get set up very well, having difficulty moving the puck up the ice from their own zone on their breakouts.

Sjodin had one good chance in the low slot stopped by Irving.

Mucha made several spectacular saves in the second period too, Everett outshooting Portland 15-12.

Portland held its own, territorially, early in the third period – neither team getting much going – but as the period wore on, Everett started wearing Portland down.

Starting with a power play chance that the Hawks killed 5:58 into the period, Everett started to put on the pressure and the Hawks just could not clear their zone to get fresh players out.

As a result, Mucha came up big time and time again with phenomenal saves, but eventually defenseman Dane Crowley found the twine, ironically, with a long wrist shot, top corner, over Mucha’s stick-side shoulder.

Gutierrez added his fourth of the game for the final margin as shots for the game were 55-28

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