Ice eke out victory over persistent Silvertips

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This article was published 01/11/2022 (1130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Ice went more than two months and 13 consecutive home games before tasting defeat at Wayne Fleming Arena in 2021-22.

Two games into the current home slate Tuesday night, the Winnipeggers were showing some uncharacteristic signs of vulnerablity on home ice.

The Ice spotted Everett a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes but rallied with a three goals in the third period — Owen Pederson’s seventh, Connor McClennon’s 10th and Zach Benson’s eighth — en route to a 5-4 victory over the Silvertips in WHL action on the University of Manitoba campus.

McClennon’s goal, coming on a rocket-blast one-timer after a snappy power-play setup from defenceman Ben Zloty, gave Winnipeg a 4-3 lead.

“There’s so much skill out there, obviously (Matt Savoie) and (Zloty) are distributors of the puck and I’m just trying to get open for them,” said McClennon, who scarcely touched the puck before ripping it past Everett goaltender Braden Holt. “Obviously, the power-play has been a little bit of a work in progress so far this year, but was good to get one tonight and it was obviously a really big goal.”

Winnipeg’s power play, now 14-for-69 and 20.3 per cent for 13th in the league after 15 games, is a far cry from the superb unit that led the league and was scoring at a 40 per cent clip in the first half of 2021-22.

Ice head coach James Patrick has tried to remedy the situation by getting McClennon, a 43-goal man last season, to shoot more often.

“We’ve talked about establishing the shot more because we’ve just been looking for pretty plays and lately we have just said, ‘Let’s just start shooting, shooting, shooting (because) it might open up some other lanes,’ ” said Patrick.

“But that is when he is at his most dangerous — shooting on that off side. I mean, he’s scored on both sides now in the last couple of games but it’s a weapon that we have to take advantage of because not many guys can shoot like that.”

McClennon finished the game with two goals, four points and five shots on goal.

“I don’t want him being the quarterback (on the power play),” said Patrick. “I want him being the receiver and the shooter. And sometimes we will keep working on that side and it ends up with him being the flank guy holding onto the puck.”

The Silvertips, playing the third game of a six-game tour through the East Division, looked like fresher team for much of the contest but Winnipeg’s superior firepower prevailed in the end.

Winnipegger Ryan Hofer, chosen in the sixth round (181st overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft by the Washington Capitals, opened scoring 14:36 into the first period.

Hofer, playing in front of a boisterous group of supporters, went 15-for-30 in the faceoff circle, collected four shots on net and was dangerous all game long.

“We’ve got a good group ourselves — our character, I think, shows,” said the 20-year-old centre, who has seven goals and 12 points in 12 games. “We had lots of energy this game but unfortunately we didn’t get the win… They have a lot of firepower for sure and they make you pay.”

McClennon, with his first of two, and Zloty, with his fourth, scored 72 seconds apart to give a Winnipeg a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Austin Roest, Caden Zaplitny and Olen Zellwegger also scored for the visitors. Zellwegger’s goal tied the game 4-4 late in the third period.

Holt made 30 stops in the Silvertips net while Ice goaltender Daniel Hauser finished with 36 saves and improved his record to 11-0-0-0.

BLUE-LINES: Winnipeg was without the services of centre Conor Geekie. The 18-year-old was serving a one-game league suspension handed out after taking a double minor for slew-footing Oct. 29 against the Brandon Wheat Kings… The Ice went one-for-five on the power play. Everett was one-for-two… Three stars: 1. Connor McClennon, Winnipeg (two goals, two assists); 2. Zach Benson, Winnipeg (one goal, one assist); 3. Olen Zellwegger, Everett (one goal, one assist)… Newly acquired Ice defenceman Graham Sward arrived just prior to game time and did not dress. The 19-year-old was acquired from Spokane with the Chiefs getting blue-liner Jaren Brinson and four draft picks in return.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14 i