Everett scores in second OT, beats Chiefs

The Spokane Chiefs had all the good chances during Wednesday’s first overtime.

The Everett Silvertips needed just one good chance in the second extra period.

Jake Mykitiuk took Ivan Nikolishin’s pass on a 3-on-2 break and beat Garret Hughson just 2 minutes and 7 seconds into the second OT as Everett defeated the Chiefs 2-1 at the Arena to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 Western Hockey League first-round series.

“That feels awesome,” Mykitiuk said. “It was a good team effort. I think we dominated for the most part tonight, so I think we really deserved that one.”

“I liked our first overtime,” Chiefs head coach Don Nachbaur said. “We made a mistake with our line change in the second overtime and got a guy out too late to catch their D-to-D pass up the wall and it created a 3-on-2.

“We made a mental mistake on the line change and at the end of the day, if you go back on the whole game, we had our chances in the first overtime to win it.”

Game 4 is set for 7:05 p.m. Friday at the Arena. The series shifts to Everett for Game 5 on Saturday night.

Both goaltenders were brilliant as the 19-year-old Hughson had 36 saves to earn second-star honors and Everett rookie Carter Hart took the No. 1 star with 45 saves.

“I thought that (Hughson) played an excellent game tonight and gave us a chance to win,” Chiefs assistant coach Scott Burt said on a postgame radio interview.

“Both (goalies) were really good and it came down to a break and they created it,” Nachbaur said.

Spokane dominated the first OT, outshooting Everett 11-4 and getting good scoring chances from Keanu Yamamoto and Adam Helewka during the first 7 1/2 minutes.

“We had a backdoor feed that hits our stick and went off the end wall and we had pucks in front of the net,” Nachbaur said. “You know what, we can’t be discouraged.”

The Chiefs had the only power-play chance of the first OT when Nikita Scherbak was whistled for embellishment at 12:26. The Chiefs had no good shots with the man advantage.

Spokane held a 46-36 advantage in shots headed into the second OT.

During regulation, Helewka scored Spokane’s goal at 14:19 of the first period, skating from behind the net to whip a shot past Hart. It was Helewka’s third goal of the playoffs, all three in the last two games.

Kailer Yamamoto and Tyson Helgesen assisted on Helewka’s goal.

Shots were at a premium during the hard-checking second period. Everett had a 9-5 edge in shots and killed Spokane’s first two power-play chances.

Everett’s Brayden Low needed just 52 seconds of the third period to tie the score, taking Carson Stadnyk’s centering pass while alone out front.

Both teams killed penalties to keep the score tied at 1. Through regulation, Everett was 0 for 4 on power plays while Spokane was 0 for 3.

The Chiefs peppered Hart during the second half of the third period but couldn’t snap the tie. Spokane outshot the Silvertips 20-12 in the third.

“I’m not upset with the guys,” Nachbaur said. “We put everything we had into that game and … we had enough chances in the overtime to win the game.”