bigmacbear | Hockey History in the making

gmjambear and I went to see the Everett Silvertips play the Portland Winterhawks at home at the Everett Events Center. This was our first visit to the arena and our first Silvertips game, but not the first time we'd seen the Winterhawks as we'd seen them play Seattle at KeyArena.

The game got off to a rather inauspicious start as the Winterhawks scored three unanswered goals, two on power plays, in the first period. But the Tips' fortunes turned around rather rapidly once they scored their first goal with seconds remaining in the first period.

During the first intermission the scoreboard video captured a series of fans with signs, like the old Burma-Shave ones, that read "Portland/is now back to/full strength/and they still suck!" Sure enough, every time thereafter that the announcer mentioned that Portland had returned to full strength (after their last player completed his turn in the penalty box), the crowd roared back in unison, "AND THEY STILL SUCK!" ;-) Conspicuous by its absence was Gary Glitter's "Rock And Roll Part I" (or was it II?) over the PA system, as every time we attended a game in Seattle (whether Portland was playing or not) that would always elicit a chant of "Portland sucks! Portland sucks!"

During the second period one player grabbed the stick out of another player's hand, which prompted one fan to shout, "I bet that's not the first time you've grabbed another dude's stick!" A few moments later Silvertip #21, Zack Dailey, ended up falling down, sailing across the crease completely into the net. Reactions included "You're supposed to get the puck into the net!" and "Good thing it was Dailey, he's the only player who could fit!" Like the first period, the second period closed with an Everett goal in the final seconds.

Zack Dailey, courtesy Everett Silvertips (www.everettsilvertips.com)

[Edited to add:

gmjambear remarked that this picture reminds him of his younger brother Vince.]

There were a lot of fights in this game, particularly in the third period as the score mounted in Everett's favor. At one point Dailey got entangled with a Portland player with close to a foot of height on him (Dailey is only 5'6" tall), and pretty much gave as good as he got. Several Portland players left the ice on 10 minute misconduct penalties. The fellow next to me said that Portland always plays dirty and usually ends up regretting it.

Toward the end of the game Everett broke a franchise record by scoring their tenth goal of the game, ultimately winning 10-4.