PHOTO: TAMI QUAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Vernon, B.C. — The West Kelowna Warriors shut out the Salmon Arm Silverbacks 3-0 on Sunday night to make the Vernon pod standings even tighter.
The Backs are now 6-5-3, while the Warriors improve to 6-5-2.
GAME SUMMARY
This was the first time the Backs were shut out this season.
They were a bit slow off the hop and surrendered the game’s opening goal for just the third time out of 14 games, when Ben Woodhouse spun and fired a low shot past Owen Say at the 8:36 mark of the period.
Although the Backs out-shot West Kelowna 11-9 after 20 minutes, Salmon Arm wasn’t able to generate many high quality looks.
The Warriors got an insurance goal from defenceman Skylar Cameron 3:08 into the second period, and yet again, the Backs found trouble pushing back with any consistency on the offensive side of things.
After 40 minutes, the shots favoured the Backs 24-19, but they were trailing the game 2-0.
Salmon Arm started to find their legs in the third period and were able to generate significant zone time, but the puck really seemed to be bouncing on them in and around the net and once again, there just weren’t enough high danger scoring chances.
Carter Wilkie scored an empty-net goal from his own zone with 1:22 to go in the game to make it a 3-0 final, with Austin Madge making 33 saves for the shutout in his first appearance in the BCHL pod season.
For the full boxscore from Sunday’s game, click here.
THEY SAID IT
“We just didn’t really have it [tonight]. We didn’t start on time. We fought the puck all night. We didn’t really create any chances for ourselves. We didn’t even draw a penalty. Those games are gong to happen and it feels a lot tougher after you lose yesterday and the way we lost yesterday, but just to evaluate the game as a whole, it’s something that’s going to happen. It happens to every team at different points in the year and with the things we’re dealing with right now, you can’t be too surprised by it. It’s just going to make our response on Wednesday that much bigger.” – Asst. coach Carter Cochrane
SASCU 3 STARS
- Austin Madge – 33/33 in first BCHL start
- Ben Woodhouse – WK – GWG
- Skylar Cameron – WK – 1G
FORTIS BC ENERGY PLAYER OF THE GAME
Hunter Sansbury – SA
WHAT’S NEXT
The Silverbacks only have three games this upcoming week: Wednesday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m. against the Vernon Vipers; Saturday, May 1 at 6 p.m. against the Vernon Vipers; and Sunday, May 2 at 4 p.m. against the West Kelowna Warriors.
Fans can stream all games on BCHL TV!
