Silvertips' season ends in 2-1 Game 7 defeat

EVERETT — When the Everett Silvertips spend this summer pondering their early exit from the Western Hockey League playoffs, they'll remember five straight power plays that came up empty, a shot that rang off the inside of the post in the third period and two tipped shots that went into their own net.

Mark Guggenberger, who did not start the series in net for Kelowna, stopped 40 shots to lead the Rockets to a 2-1 win in Game 7 of an opening-round series Monday night before 4,784 at Comcast Arena.

"We hit posts, we missed wide-open nets, we had scrambles around their net and they have one (goal) go in off our stick and they tip the other one in," Everett coach Craig Hartsburg said. "It was an unbelievable series and you have to give both teams credit for battling and giving us everything you could want in a series."

For the defending WHL champion Rockets, who began the series as the sixth seed after battling injuries all season, it was a case of one player rising to the top at a critical time.

"It was our goaltender, especially in the third period," Kelowna coach Ryan Huska said. "Everett was really coming on, especially in the third period, and it was a night when our goaltender was our best player, and you need that this time of year. He gave us a chance to win."

Last year, Guggenberger led the Rockets to the Memorial Cup championship game, but offseason surgery kept him out until late in the season and he fell behind starter Adam Brown.

After Brown lost the first two games of the series in Everett, Guggenberger won four of the next five.

The home team won each of the first six games, but the Rockets broke the trend in Game 7 despite being outshot 41-22.

"I think the series really turned when we lost (defensemen Radko) Gudas and Chris de la Lande," Hartsburg said. "That's a big part of our team. Other kids tried to fill in, but it was a rough road for us after that. Plus we had a chance to win every game up there in their building and their tenacity and grit kept them in those games."

Gudas was injured in Game 2 with a third-degree shoulder separation but played Monday.

"He was basically playing with one arm," Hartsburg said. "It was amazing what he went through to play. He's just a warrior."

Kelowna scored first, again taking advantage of the one gaping hole in Everett's game — inability to kill penalties.

Just six seconds after a penalty to Gudas, the Rockets scored on the power play. Kelowna won the draw back to Tyson Barrie, he passed to Dallas Jackson and Jackson's shot was tipped in by Geordie Wudrick.

It was Wudrick's seventh goal of the series and sixth time he's tipped in a shot. It was also Kelowna's seventh power-play goal on 18 tries.

Everett tied it with a power-play goal by Chris Langkow in the second, but the game turned when Kelowna scored after being outshot 12-3 to start the period.

"Territorially they carried a lot of the play, but I was proud of the way our guys sacrificed their bodies and blocked so many shots," Huska said. "We gritted it out."

It was the third Game 7 in Everett history, but the first played in Everett.

The Silvertips beat Kelowna 2-1 in overtime in the Western Conference final in 2004 and beat Portland 3-2 in a first-round matchup 2005.