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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Everett edges Chiefs in overtime

Brayden Low has been around long enough to remember when a trip to the Arena was an automatic loss for the Everett Silvertips.

That pattern seems to have changed, as Low and his Silvertips demonstrated again on Saturday.

Ivan Nikolishin’s goal 2 minutes, 59 seconds into overtime gave Everett a 3-2 win over the Spokane Chiefs, who played their fourth game since Tuesday.

Low, a 20-year-old center in his third year with Everett, and Patrick Bajkov also scored for the Silvertips to help fight off two goals by Spokane native Keanu Yamamoto.

The Silvertips had lost 18 consecutive games at the Arena until they broke that streak on March 12 last season.

“My first year we didn’t have necessarily the strongest team and Spokane had some pretty offensive guys,” Low said. “Under (coach) Kevin Constantine, I think we can come in here and play a pretty tight, defensive game and find a way to get a win.”

The Silvertips improved to 6-0-2-1 (15 points) and 5-0-0-1 on the road. The Chiefs, who have played six games decided by one goal and four games that went into OT, are 4-2-3-0 (11 points).

“We gave it everything we had,” Chiefs coach Don Nachbaur said. “We played four games in five nights and you could tell. I thought from maybe halfway through the first (period) we ran out of gas. We hung around and hung around through the second and we found the legs in the third where we got something going, but we weren’t sharp.”

Everett held the Chiefs to eight shots through the first two periods, including three shots in the second, before Spokane found its legs.

The Chiefs outshot the Silvertips 13-4 in the final period and forced OT when Yamamoto took a pass out front from Jason Fram and scored at 16:52 to tie Liam Stewart for the team lead with five goals. The play was reviewed to see if Yamamoto had kicked the puck in, but the goal counted.

“They came out hard and came out pretty desperate in the third period,” Low said. “They threw a lot at us and I think we handled it pretty well.”

Spokane had its second power-play chance of the game with 2:18 left in regulation – Everett finished 1 for 7 with a man advantage – but the Chiefs couldn’t cash in and they are now 4 for 32 for the season.

Nikolishin’s winner, assisted by Noah Juulsen and Kohl Bauml, was an innocent-looking shot that just scooted past Chiefs goalie Garret Hughson.

“Maybe they got lucky, but they put the puck on the net and I didn’t think we put the puck on the net enough tonight,” Nachbaur said.

“But I give my guys credit. Their hearts were invested in this, trying to get back into the game and trying to win it.”

The Chiefs play at Everett on Wednesday and at Seattle on Friday. They return home Saturday to meet the Kootenay Ice.