Salmon Arm, B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks dropped a 6-5 score in overtime on Friday night to the Powell River Kings.
Salmon Arm’s record now stands at 23-19-4, just one point back of the Vernon Vipers for third place in the Interior Division. The Backs have a two-point lead on Wenatchee, who are in fifth place with 48 points.
GAME SUMMARY
The Silverbacks didn’t have a great start to this one, surrendering the game’s first goal at the 1:52 mark of the period after a spin-o-rama backhander from Jack Brackett hit the cross-bar and went in.
Halfway through the frame, the Backs found themselves close to killing off their second straight penalty, but with just nine seconds to go in their power play, Kings forward Devin Leduc buried the puck after his teammate Michael Abgrall hit the post.
After 20 minutes, the Silverbacks were down 2-0 and trailed in shots on goal 10-8.
Salmon Arm showed some urgency to begin the second and halfway through the period it paid off, after forward Coalson Wolford carried the puck behind the goal and heard Logan Shaw call for the puck after joining the play late. Wolford fed him a perfect pass that Shaw one-timed home through the five-hole of goaltender Derek Krall.
Just 29 seconds after cutting the Kings’ lead in half, Daniel Rybarik deflected home Hunter Sansbury’s point shot to tie the game 2-2. It was his 25th goal of the season.
The Backs weren’t done there.
After drawing their first power play of the game at the 13:43 mark of the second period, Luke Mylymok only needed 15 seconds to whip a one-timer over the shoulder of Krall and into the back of the net.
After 40 minutes of play, the Backs held a 3-2 advantage on the scoreboard and 20-18 edge in shots on goal.
The first half of the third period was uneventful, mostly filled with neutral zone play and dumping and chasing, but Rybarik gave the Silverbacks a key insurance marker at the 10:37 mark of the third. Lucas Breault zipped a cross-ice feed to Rybarik from the neutral zone that hit him in full stride, which allowed him to get a step on the defenceman and fly down the wing. The Calgary, AB native then fired a quick release to the top corner over Krall’s glove for his 26th goal of the season — and 20th at even-strength.
With five minutes to go in regulation, Jacob Slipec jumped on a loose puck in the slot and out-waited goaltender Ethan Langenegger before sliding it past his left pad to make the score 4-3.
With 2:29 to go in the third period, the Kings called a timeout and pulled the goaltender. Just seven seconds after the ensuing offensive zone face-off, they tied the game off the stick of Brett Roloson, who deposited a rebound to the back of the goal.
Just 38 seconds later, Salmon Arm re-took the lead. Drew Bennett fought his way out front from the corner, which led to a crease scramble and a point-blank chance for Jeremy Gervais, who was stopped, but Bennett was not, as he somehow shovelled home the loose puck.
Twelve seconds after re-gaining the lead, the Backs were called for tripping and so with 46 seconds left in the game, Leduc buried his second of the game on a power play to make it a 5-5 game.
Sixty minutes wasn’t enough to settle the score and so the Silverbacks headed to overtime for the 11th time this season.
Right off the hop, the Backs got chances, first from Rybarik and then from Mylymok and Unruh, but Krall shut the door. At the 1:50 mark of overtime, Abgrall swatted home a rebound for his ninth tally of the season to give the home side the extra point.
TOP PERFORMERS
Luke Mylymok — Salmon Arm Silverbacks: Mylymok has seriously found his stride and was once again dominant at retrieving pucks in the offensive zone. His power play goal was the seventh tally of the season for him in just 16 games.
Logan Shaw — Salmon Arm Silverbacks: Even before Shaw’s second period goal, he was having a whale of a game, particularly on the penalty kill, throwing his body out to block shots again and again, as well as hunting down pucks all over the ice.
Daniel Rybarik — Salmon Arm Silverbacks: The goals just keep on coming for Rybarik, who now has sole possession of second in the entire BCHL with 26. He’s also got 10 goals in his last 11 games.
For the full boxscore, click here.
STAT OF THE GAME
Three Kings Goals Final 5 Minutes: Rybarik’s second of the game gave the Silverbacks a 4-2 lead at the halfway point of the period. But the Kings tied it at 4-4 and then tied it again after Bennett gave the Backs the go-ahead goal with 1:44 left.
Cochrane on the crazy ending:
“They had a lot of push back there late. We really locked it down defensively, we went 20 minutes without giving up a chance from five minutes into the second period to five minutes left in the third, we hadn’t given up a chance. And then we just start missing details. Off a d-zone draw, we’re unorganized. A penalty late to give them an opportunity to tie it. I think it’s just those last five minutes where you’ve really got to lock it down and I think that’s probably where we were the most mentally weak all game. It’s just something we’ve got to really get through right now. We’re showing a lot of really good things and it’s really hard at this time of the year to battle through it, but we’ve just got to find a way.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The Silverbacks continue their road trip Saturday in Victoria for a date with the Grizzlies before wrapping up the 3-in-3 with on Sunday afternoon in Surrey against the Eagles.
The games can be heard on 91.5 EZ Rock with the pre-game show starting half an hour before puck drop. Fans can also stream the game on HockeyTV.
