Departing Everett coach adds intrigue to series against underdog Giants
The Vancouver Giants' first-round playoff series with the Everett Silvertips added a plot twist Wednesday, with word that longtime Silvertips coach Dennis Williams was leaving at the end of the post-season for a job in college hockey.
The Silvertips and the Bowling Green State University Falcons both put out statements confirming that Williams, 44, would be coaching the Falcons starting next season, putting an end to his seven-year run behind the bench in Everett. Williams took on general manager duties with the Silvertips as well ahead of the 2021-22 campaign.
He is a Bowling Green alum, having suited up there at the same time as former Vancouver Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa.
The announcement is far from standard operating procedure. The third-place Silvertips (45-18-2-3) are set to start their best-of-seven WHL Western Conference opening round with the sixth-place Giants (32-32-4-0) on Friday at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett. Bowling Green did want to have its coach in place this week, what with the NCAA transfer portal opening Sunday.
There's an argument that this won't affect Everett during these playoffs, that junior hockey is transient by nature and that rosters are forever changing.
The Silvertips have eight players in their 19-year-old seasons and can keep only three of them next year. The Silvertips will undoubtedly give it the “one last run with Williams” sales pitch internally, too.
On the other side, the Everett Herald story Wednesday about the move stated Williams was unavailable for comment because he was on his way to Bowling Green, Ohio, for an introductory news conference today and was expected back in time for Friday's game. Those aren't things you generally read just before a playoff matchup.
The Giants, of course, can add to this as a talking point if they can push the Silvertips. The series continues Saturday in Everett and then shifts to the Langley Events Centre next Wednesday.
“We need to play our game,” said Giants captain Samuel Honzek, the winger who was a Calgary Flames 2023 first-round draft choice. “We need to focus on the details and what we've been told to do out there.
“When everyone is doing their job, we're a very good team and we can take on anyone.”
Everett comes into this series with points in 12 straight games (10-0-1-1) and they went 3-1-0-0 against the Giants this season.
The teams' last meeting came on Feb. 3, and Vancouver won that one 4-3 at the LEC. Honzek bagged the winner midway through the third period on his way to being named the game's first star, while goalie Brett Mirwald made 34 saves.
That was part of Vancouver's 16-6-2-0 run between Jan. 3 and March 3. That surge took the Giants from battling for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West to challenging for fourth and the home-ice advantage in the first round that went with it.
Vancouver went 3-5-0-0 in the last three weeks of league play. They still had a shot to finish fourth going into the final weekend, but lost 6-2 to the Kelowna Rockets at home on Friday and 5-2 in Kelowna on Saturday.
A win in one of those two games and they'd be playing the Wenatchee Wild (34-30-4-0) in the first round. Kelowna (33-304-1) is facing off with Wenatchee instead, and Vancouver gets Everett, a team that came in 23 points better than the Wild.
Everett is also one of the more difficult rinks for road teams. The Silvertips had the league's thirdbest road record this season (265-2-1). The Giants are 1-7-0-0 at Angel of the Winds over the past five regular seasons.
“They're very loud,” Vancouver defenceman Colton Roberts said of Everett fans. “I do like playing there. For me, I think, use their fans' (energy) like they are our own fans. We can do that, we'll do well down there.”
Vancouver did win twice in Everett during the 2022 first round of the playoffs, when the eighth-place Giants upset the first-place Silvertips in six games. That included a 5-4 overtime victory in Game 1 and a 50-save shutout from Jesper Vikman in a 3-0 Game 5 triumph. Vancouver had finished 47 points behind Everett in the regular season, and that series marked the first time a No. 8 had beaten a No. 1 since the WHL went to a 16-team post-season in 2002.
Vancouver lost to the Kamloops Blazers in six games in the next round.
“It helps having guys from that team,” Honzek said of a 2022 holdover group that's led by the likes of forward Jaden Lipinski and defenceman Mazden Leslie, “but we all have to be ready. We have to have everyone playing their best.”
The Giants had two players named to the year-end B.C. Division all-star teams. Mirwald got a first-team nod and Lipinski made the second team.
The Giants also handed out their team awards. Mirwald took the P.C. Toigo most valuable player.