The Everett Silvertips avoided a sweep at the hands of the Spokane Chiefs with a 4-1 victory at Spokane to make the series 3-1 in favor of Spokane.
Robbie Holmes got the scoring kicked off when he beat Chiefs goalie Bailey Brkin at 6:21 into the first period. One minute and twenty-six seconds later, Zack Andrusiak doubled the Everett lead to 2-0. The second Silvertips goal was a power play goal, scored while the Chiefs’ Bobby Russell was in the box, serving a tripping minor.
Before the first period expired, Spokane would cut the lead in half when Adam Beckman scored with just over a minute left in the frame. This one came on the power play while Sahvan Khaira was off for Everett for tripping.
However, Everett would get two more from Connor Dewar to seal it. His first came at 6:41 of the second period and the other went into an empty net with about 1:16 to go in the game.
Just after the empty net goal, things got messy for Spokane. Bobby Russell took a cross-checking minor at 18:56, followed by a bench minor for too many men on the ice (the team’s second such penalty of the game) at 19:09. All of that was followed by a Filip Kral game misconduct with 32 seconds left in the game.
Ty Smith’s stat line read: a minus-2 plus/minus rating and two shots on goal in the contest.
In goal, Bailey made 22 saves on 25 shots against for Spokane. The Silvertips ended the game with 26 shots due to the empty net goal. For Everett, Dustin Wolf saved 27 of the 28 shots he saw.
With the man advantage, the Silvertips were 1-for-5 while the Chiefs were 1-for-3.
Game five between these two teams will take place Saturday night, April 13 at 10:05 PM ET from Spokane. The Chiefs will once again look to wrap things up and avoid going back to Everett for a game six.
In other news involving a Devils’ prospect across the CHL, the Ottawa 67’s and Mitchell Hoelscher will face the winner of the Niagara IceDogs-Oshawa Generals series. That second round series is currently tied at three games apiece. The winner will get the 67’s, who have yet to lose a game this playoff season in the OHL.