Bow bedivils ‘Tips; T-Birds take division lead | WHL

It was the Landon Bow show Friday night in Everett.

The Seattle goalie made 40 saves and stopped seven shots in a shootout to lift the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 2-1 Western Hockey League win over the Everett Silvertips at Xfinity Arena.

Seattle (38-22-3-0) moves into first place in the U.S. Division with its sixth straight win. They are tied with Everett (36-21-4-3) in points, but by virtue of having more wins, which is the first tiebreaker, they claim the top spot in the division.

The T-Birds, who have won 10 of their last 11 games, need one more point to clinch a playoff spot with eight games remaining in the regular season.

The T-Birds play the Portland Winterhawks at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at the ShoWare Center. They travel to Kennewick to take on the Tri-City Americans at 5:05 p.m. Sunday at the Toyota Center.

Through six rounds of the shootout, Bow stopped shots by Carson Stadnyk, Devon Skoleski, Dario Winkler, Patrick Bajkov, Remi Laurencelle and Graham Millar. The save on Laurencelle was highlight reel worthy as Laurencelle had Bow down but the goalie reached back with the paddle of his stick and stopped the puck.

Everett goalie Carter Hart stopped the first six T-Birds shooters in the shootout. Hart denied Mathew Barzal, Ryan Gropp, Donovan Neuls, Jerret Smith, Nick Holowko and Josh Uhrich.

Nolan Volcan, Seattle’s seventh shooter, broke the scoreless shootout deadlock. Volcan came down the ice on Hart a little bit to the goalie’s left. Volcan snapped a wrist shot past Hart blocker side to get the goal.

Bow needed to stop Matt Fonteyne to get the T-Birds the win. Fonteyne came in slow on Bow, stickhandled through the slot and made a move to his right. Bow slid over with Fonteyne and snapped his glove out to make the save.

Bow made 40 saves on 41 shots and his record is now 20-20-4-0.

Seattle took a 1-0 lead at 8:34 of the first period. Barzal carried the puck up the ice into the neutral zone. Barzal passed the puck to Holowko, who drove the net on the right wing. Hart went down to stop a shot from Holowko, but instead of shooting Holowko, passed the puck through crease to Gropp, who had an easy backdoor tap in for his 33rd goal of the season.

Barzal extended his team high point streak to 12 games with the second assist on the goal.

Seattle outshot Everett 10-7 in the first period.

Bow kept the Silvertips off the board in the second period with 17 saves. Bow made several very good saves as the T-Birds killed 1:21 of an Everett five-on-three power play.

The ‘Tips outshot the T-Birds 17-6 in the second period and led in shots 24-16 after two periods.

Everett (36-21-4-2) tied the game 1-1 with 2:45 left in the third period Connor Dewar put a rebound from a Cole MacDonald point shot past Bow. Laurencelle had the second assist.

Everett outshot Seattle 11-9 in the third period and 41-28 in the game.

Hart stopped 26 of 27 shots and his record is now 34-20-1-3.

Tickets

Tickets are available on the T-Birds website and at the ShoWare Center box office. The box office is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday game days at 10 a.m. and Sunday game days at noon.

SCORING SUMMARY

First period – 1, Seattle, Gropp 33 (Holowko, Barzal), 8:34. Penalties – Gerth, Evt (major-fighting), 2:28. Osterman, Sea (major-fighting), 2:28. Winkler, Evt (tripping), 13:50. Leth, Sea (tripping) 15:41. Laurencelle Evt (), 17:26.

Second period – No scoring. Penalties – Osterman, Sea (holding), 3:05. Barzal, Sea (tripping), 9:58. Hauf, Sea (checking to the head), 10:37. Skrumeda, Evt (checking from behind), 16:56.

Third period – 2, Everett, Dewar 11 (MacDonald, Laurencelle), 17:15. Penalties – Schumacher, Sea (high-sticking), 3:41.

Overtime – No scoring. Penalties – No penalties.

Shootout – Seattle 1 (Barzal NG, Gropp NG, Neuls NG, Smith NG, Holowko NG, Uhrich NG, Volcan G). Everett 0 (Stadnyk, Skoleski NG, Winkler NG, Bajkov NG, Laurencelle NG, Millar NG, Fonteyne NG).

Shots on goal – Seattle 10-6-9-2-1 28, Everett 7-17-11-6-0 41. Goalies – Seattle, Bow 41 shots-40 saves (20-20-4-0); Everett, Hart 27-26 (34-20-1-3). Power plays – Seattle 0-3; Everett 0-5. A – 7,206. Referees – Tyler Adair, Jeff Ingram. Linesmen – Adam Brastad, Michael McGowan.