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2003-2004 Season Re-cap
The Everett Silvertips Dream Season
The Everett Silvertips inaugural season in 2003-2004 captured the hearts of the entire Everett and Snohomish County communities.
In their first ever season in the Western Hockey League, the Silvertips broke many expansion records in the regular season and a
playoff run that will never be forgotten by Silvertip fans for years to come as the Kevin Constantine led hockey club scratched
and clawed their way to the 2004 WHL Finals.
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2003-2004 Regular Season Leaders
John Dahl (25 goals, 19 assists) and Riley Armstrong (18 goals, 26 assists) finished the 2003-2004 season tied for first as the Silvertips leading scorers with 44 points. Dahl led the hockey club with 25 goals and Armstrong led the Silvertips with 26 assists. Mitch Love (12 goals, 15 assists) led all Silvertips defensemen in scoring with 27 points and led the club in penalty minutes with 163 PIM's. Forward Curtis Billsten (8 goals, 12 assists) led the Silvertips in the +/- category with a +14 and led the team in rookie scoring with 20 points.
In between the pipes goaltender Jeff Harvey was solid by posting a 24-15-5 record with a 1.97 Goals Against Average (2nd in WHL), .926 Save Percentage (3rd in WHL) and 3 Shutouts. Michael Wall who was acquired in a trade with the Prince George Cougars in October of 2003 made a nice contribution with a 12 victories, 2.27 Goals Against Average (5th in WHL), .920 Save Percentage (7th in WHL) and 2 Shutouts.
2003-2004 Regular Season Special Teams
The Silvertips finished 18th in the WHL on the power play (56 for 416, 13.5%) and 2nd in the WHL on the penalty kill (255 for 285, 89.5%). The Silvertips allowed the fewest power play goals in the WHL with 30 power play goals against.
Record Breakers
The Everett Silvertips broke many WHL and CHL expansion team records in their dream first season. Overall the Silvertips broke 10 expansion team records during the 2003-2004 season.
- Most wins by an expansion team in the WHL (35)
- Most points recorded by an expansion team in the WHL and CHL (80 points)
- Best winning percentage by an expansion team in the WHL (.556)
- Fewest losses by an expansion team in the WHL and CHL (27) 72 game season
- First expansion team in the WHL to win a division
- First expansion team in the WHL to win a playoff series
- First expansion team in the WHL to win a conference title
- First expansion team in the WHL to play in the league final
- Most shutouts recorded in the WHL and CHL by an expansion team (7)
- Fewest goals against in one season by an expansion team in the WHL and CHL (153) 72 game season
THE 2004 WHL Playoffs
The Everett Silvertips put a wonderful and fantastic playoff run together in the 2004 WHL Playoffs. In the first round of the playoffs the Silvertips swept by the Spokane Chiefs (4-0) and defeated their rivals north of the border, Vancouver Giants in six games (4-2) in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. The Silvertips battled the 2003 WHL Champions, Kelowna Rockets in the Western Conference Finals and were down in the series 3-1 against the Rockets heading into a must win Game #5 in Kelowna, BC. The comeback started on an overtime goal by Bryan Nathe in Game #5 to send the series to Everett for Game #6. The Everett Events Center was rocking for Game #6 and the Silvertips did not disappoint as John Dahl tallied the game winning overtime goal in the first overtime to even the series a three games a piece and force a Game #7 in Kelowna. On Tuesday, April 27, 2004 the Silvertips defeated the Kelowna Rockets 2-1 in overtime to win the Western Conference Championship and a trip to the 2004 WHL Finals. Jeff Schmidt tallied the biggest goal in Silvertips franchise history in overtime as goaltender Jeff Harvey made 35 saves to help lead the Silvertips to the record breaking victory. In the WHL Finals the Silvertips faced off against the high power offense of the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Tigers defeated the Silvertips in the finals in four games but the Silvertips showed why Everett will be a force in the Western Hockey League for years to come.
2004 Playoff Scoring Leaders
The Silvertips were led in scoring by John Dahl (3 goals, 13 assists) in the 2004 WHL Playoffs with 16 points. Marc Desloges (7 goals, 5 assists) led the hockey club in goals scored with 7 and Dahl led the team in assists with 13. Ivan Baranka (3 goals, 5 assists), Bryan Nathe (2 goals, 6 assists) and Mitch Love (2 goals, 6 assists) led all Silvertips defensemen with 8 points. Forward, Mark Kress led the hockey club with a +11.
In goal, Jeff Harvey finished the post season with 11 victories, a Goals Against Average of 1.86, .938 Save Percentage and 3 shutouts to finish off his stellar WHL career.
And the Crowd Goes Wild at the Everett Events Center
Between 36 home regular season and 10 home playoff games the Everett Events Center attracted over 275,000 fans for Silvertips hockey games. During the 2004 WHL Playoffs the Silvertips averaged over 7,100 fans at the Everett Events Center.
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