Silvertips stars sit, T-birds take finale

The Seattle Thunderbirds padded their gaudy record at KeyArena and kept momentum heading into the playoffs with a 5-2 win Sunday over the Everett Silvertips.

Five players scored for Seattle, which ends the season with a 25-6-3-2 home record heading into Friday's playoff opener against the Kelowna Rockets at KeyArena on Friday.

"It's good that we came out and played hard," Seattle center Jim O'Brien said after scoring his 21st goal of the season to help the T-birds finish with an 8-2 record against the Silvertips this season. "It's hard to get up for a game when the standings are already set, but we wanted to come out and play the right way to stay on track."

The T-birds finish the regular season at 42-23-5-2. The Silvertips skid into the playoffs on a five-game losing streak and a 39-30-0-3 record.

Everett sat out many of its regulars and still outshot Seattle 38-34 in its final game before opening the playoffs on Friday in Spokane.

Jacob DeSerres had 36 saves to pick up his 20th win of the season for Seattle, which rested captain Thomas Hickey for the second consecutive game.

"Sadly, it was one of our better performances," Everett coach John Becanic said.

The Silvertips took five NHL draft picks out of their lineup — Leland Irving, Zach Hamill, Dan Gendur, Taylor Ellington and Dane Crowley — and, Becanic said, "our guys went out and competed against one of the hottest teams in the league."

Bud Holloway scored his 43rd goal of the season short-handed and unassisted to set the tone for Seattle midway through the first period. David Richard, Jan Eberle and Prab Rai also scored for the T-birds, and Zack Dailey scored both goals for the Silvertips.

"We did a lot of things well," Seattle coach Rob Sumner said. "When we were sloppy, Jake [DeSerres] was right on task."

Sumner said he was pleased with goalies Riku Helenius and DeSerres, and "we'll have to wait and see who starts in the playoffs."

It was Rai's 20th goal of the season, in addition to his team-high 44 assists.

"It was good goal for our entire line," O'Brien said after he, Rai and Richard all finished with 20 goals or more. "We're playing good as a team right now, and hopefully we can keep it up against Kelowna."

THUNDERBIRDS 5, SILVERTIPS 2

	Everett		1	1	0	--	2

	Seattle		3	1	1	--	5

First -- 1, Seattle, Holloway 43, 10:18 (sh). 2, Seattle, Richard 22 (Rai, McKenzie), 12:35 (pp). 3, Seattle, O'Brien 21, 18:57. 4, Everett, Dailey 8 (Ius, Vartovnik), 19:27. Second -- 5, Seattle, Eberle 7 (McKenzie, Boyer), 7:59. 6, Everett, Dailey 9 (Harper, de la Lande), 15:16 (pp).

Third -- 7, Seattle, Rai 20 (O'Brien, Richard), 10:05. Shots on goal -- Everett 18-14-6 -- 38. Seattle 9-10-15 -- 34. Power plays -- Everett 0-6; Seattle 1-8. Goalies -- Everett, Barrie 12-6-0-0 (14 shots-10 saves), Simpson 10:47 second period (20-19). Seattle, DeSerres 20-11-0-1 (38-36). Referees -- Andy Thiessen, Carl Poole. A -- 4,405.