Sandhu Hat Trick Paces Everett Over Tri-City in Regular Season Finale

Everett, WA- Tri-City ended the regular season on a sour note.

The Everett Silvertips (25-40-3-4, 57 pts) scored five goals in the first period, including two of Tyler Sandhu’s three goals, pacing the Silvertips to a 7-5 victory over the Tri-City Americans (40-27-2-3, 85 pts) at the Comcast Arena in the regular season finale for both teams.

Tri-City snapped a three game overall win streak against Everett and snapped a four game win streak in Everett. The Americans won the season series 7-3 against the Silvertips.

The Americans have lost a season high five games in a row to end the season.

Everett got on the board 1:31 into the game. Sandhu received a pass in front of the net, faked out Luke Lee-Knight and fired the puck into the net for the 1-0 lead. The Silvertips increased the lead to 2-0 midway through the period. Justin Gutierrez turned the puck over in the Americans zone to Landon Oslanski, who fired a shot through traffic into the net. Reid Petryk increased the lead to three as he skated toward the net and slipped the puck through the five-hole. Tri-City stopped the Everett momentum as Zachary Yuen fired a shot from the left hash mark past Daniel Cotton to cut the lead to 3-1. Sandhu notched his second of the period late in the first as he put back a rebound to make it 4-1. Petryk scored his second of the period by firing a loose puck from the right faceoff circle into the goal to cap the scoring in the period and give Everett a 5-1 lead after one period.

The Silvertips continued to pour it on in the second. Sandhu completed his hat trick eight minutes into the period as he scored by shooting a rebound into the goal to increase the lead to 6-1. The Americans got another goal midway through the period on the power play. Justin Feser fed a pass to Malte Strömwall in the slot, firing it past Cotton to cut the lead to four. It took Everett a little more than a minute to increase the lead back to five as Mitch Skapski fired a shot from the left faceoff circle into the goal. The Americans came right back and scored late in the period. Connor Rankin slapped away at the puck on the left post, finally getting it over the goal line to make it 7-3 after two periods.

Tri-City cut the lead to three just under eight minutes into the period. Jesse Mychan put back a rebound on the power play to make it 7-4 Everett. Strömwall scored his second of the game late in the third. Feser shot the puck off the back wall, bouncing right to Strömwall at the right post as he put the puck in the net to cut the lead to two. The effort in the third was better but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit as Everett held off Tri-City to earn the win.  

The Americans end their season with 40 wins, the lowest amount of victories over their seven year 40-win streak. It is the second season ever where the Americans have won more games on the road than at home, with the only other season where it occurred was during the 1997-98 season.

Tri-City was 3-6 on the power play, which ties a season high for power play goals in a game. The Americans also killed off all four Everett power play chances.

Lee-Knight made 17 saves in the loss while Daniel Cotton stopped 24 shots in the win.

Tri-City will now enter the first round of the 2013 WHL Playoffs, starting on the road on Friday, March 22 against the Spokane Chiefs (44-26-2-0, 90 pts) in Veterans Memorial Arena. Game time is at 7:05 p.m. Spokane won the season series 7-5, including the two games over the weekend 6-0 on Friday in Spokane and 3-2 in overtime on Saturday in Kennewick. These two rivals will meet in the post season for a third consecutive season, with each team winning one series apiece. NewsTalk 870 will broadcast the game beginning at 6:45 p.m. with the pregame show. WHL Live will stream the game online at 7:00 p.m.   

Jack in the Box Three Stars:
1. Tyler Sandhu, Everett
2. Joshua Winquist, Everett
3. Malte Strömwall, Tri-City

Notes: Drydn Dow played in his final regular season WHL game on Saturday night against Spokane. Dow finishes his four year career with 222 games played, tying him with Aaron Boogaard for 26th on the Americans all-time games played list. He had 13 goals, 50 assists, a +54 rating and 122 penalty minutes.

Tonight was the final game in an Americans uniform for Feser and Mychan. Mychan ends his regular season WHL career with 104 games played, 29 goals, 32 assists and 237 penalty minutes. In 78 games for the Americans, he had 26 goals, 28 assists and 131 penalty minutes.

Feser cemented himself this season as one of the greatest players to ever put on an Americans jersey. He finishes his career with 351 games played, second on the Americans all-time games played list. That includes 321 consecutive games played, a WHL record. He tallied 155 goals, third on the Americans all-time goals list. He recorded 198 assists, which puts him at sixth on the Americans all-time assists list. Adding those two numbers together gives him 353 career points, fourth on the Americans all-time points list and is one of five Americans to achieve the 350 career points.