Silvertips stifle Moose Jaw star

EVERETT — The Moose Jaw Warriors were among the invited guests to the New Year's Eve party at the Everett Events Center, but it didn't take the Everett Silvertips long to show them the door.

Moose Jaw's not-so-subtle strategy of hitting everything that moved led to three Everett power-play goals and an eventual 4-2 victory for the Silvertips.

The win allowed a crowd of 6,785 to celebrate Everett's sixth win in a row and moves the Silvertips to 23-14-1-0 and first place in the U.S. Division.

The loss was a bad start to a road trip through the U.S. Division for Moose Jaw and drops the Warriors to 21-12-2-2 and second in the East Division.

Everett kept Troy Brouwer, the Western Hockey League's leading scorer, off the scoresheet for only the eighth time this season.

Brouwer, who had 55 points in his first 36 games this season, had chances but was shut down by an aggressive Everett defense that held the high-scoring Warriors to only 17 shots.

John Lammers scored twice and had an assist, and Zach Hamill had a goal and an assist for the Silvertips, but this was a victory that can be credited to the defense.

"They really have a lot of offensive talent so we just wanted to shut down their top two lines and go from there," Everett defenseman Jason Fransoo said. "They may have been a little rusty after the break, but they are really a team with a lot of skill."

Things didn't start well for Everett as Moose Jaw's Cole Simpson wired in a wrist shot only 14 seconds into the game. The Warriors also went to a very physical style of play that momentarily put the Silvertips back on their heels.

"They pretty much tried to run us out of the building," Lammers said. "We had to match their physical play and go as hard as we could."

Lammers said the early Moose Jaw goal, the fastest scored against Everett in franchise history, served as a wake-up call.

"That was an eye-opener," Lammers said. "I felt like I had a bad couple of shifts and that really got me motivated. It's always nice to win, especially when you have a week off to think about it. We really wanted to end the year on a good note so this feels good."

Lammers and Hamill both scored power-play goals to give the Silvertips a 2-1 lead after the first period. It was Hamill's third goal in two games since returning after missing 18 games with mononucleosis.

"We talked about how good they were and then gave them a goal in the first 15 seconds of the game," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "It's very hard to keep the offense going when there's a long break and we were very fortunate that we caught them in a rusty mode."

In games when Brouwer hasn't scored a point, the Warriors are 0-8.

"We didn't have a specific plan to stop him," Constantine said. "We just talked about how as a team they can really score."

SILVERTIPS 4, WARRIORS 2

Moose Jaw	1 0 1 — 2
Everett	2 1 1 — 4

First — 1. Moose Jaw Simpson 5 (McArdle) :14. 2. Everett Lammers 18 (Wheat, Fiala) 6:08 (pp). 3. Everett Hamill 8 (Wheat, Kress) 9:04 (pp). Second — 4. Everett Lammers 19 (Hamill) 8:38. Third — 5. Moose Jaw Jones (unassisted) 1:07. 6. Everett Fiala 5 (Lammers) 3:24 (pp). Shots on goal by: Moose Jaw 4-5-8 — 17. Everett 9-11-13 — 33. Power plays (goals, chances) — Moose Jaw 0-2, Everett 2-7. Goaltenders — Moose Jaw: Lepp (6-6). Everett: Irving (21-13). A — 6,785.