“Let’s go Tips, let’s go Tips, let’s go Tips!”
You can hear that boisterous, rhythmic chant paired with jingling cowbells when you attend an Everett Silvertips hockey game under the lights at Angel Of The Winds Arena (AOTWA). And, that atmosphere is 10 times more heightened once the postseason arrives. So, when the Tips were not only recently crowned Western Conference champions of the Western Hockey League (WHL) but they also advanced to the WHL Finals for the third time in franchise history (2004, 2018), you could say AOTWA was rocking.
On May 8 and 9, a combined 15,684 people attended the first two games of the 2026 WHL Championship series between the Everett Silvertips and Prince Albert Raiders. Enroute to the finals, the Tips swept the Penticton Vees in the Western Conference Championship Series, marking not only their second sweep of this year’s WHL Playoffs but also their fourth series sweep in their history and first sweep past the Conference Quarterfinal round. The Tips blanked Portland 4-0 in the first round and topped Kelowna 4-1 in the second round.
To say Everett has a large hockey fanbase would be a severe understatement. The commitment of attending games means much more to locals. It’s passion, dedication and sometimes a mild heart attack waiting to happen when the boys concede a few goals but calmly rally back for a win. The fans are with the team no matter the circumstances. For example, the first game of the WHL Finals featured 7,697 attendees, and Everett lost 4-2. What happened the following night? Instead of losing hope, attendance increased by nearly 300 to 7,987, and Everett dominated 6-2, netting three goals solely in the first period.
Using the filters on the Tips’ schedule to rank all the playoff-game attendance numbers, of the top 10 highest-attended games, nine were at AOTWA. That’s including the first-, second-, third- and fourth-round games at Veterans Memorial Coliseum (12,000-seat capacity) in Portland, Oregon, Prospera Place (6,886-seat capacity) in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, South Okanagan Events Centre (5,000-seat capacity) in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada and Art Hauser Centre (3,299-seat capacity) in Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Canada. Now, although three of the other four venues are half the size of AOTWA, it still goes to show that Everett, Washington, is a great site for 10,000 fans!
After securing 3-2 and 5-2 road victories on May 12 and 13, the Tips lead the championship series 3-1. And, with the final away game on May 15, the Tips could potentially lift the trophy without playing again in Everett. But, regardless of the location where the Tips win, every fan will still be proud of their home team.
