PHOTO: LISA MAZUREK PHOTOGRAPHY
Vernon, B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks and Vernon Vipers needed extra time to solve things yet again on Saturday night, and this time the Vipers came away with a 3-2 win via the shootout.
The Backs record is now 4-2-3, while the Vipers improve to to 5-3-1.
GAME SUMMARY
The game’s first real action came halfway through the period in an unusual form, with Silverback forward Cameron Recchi completing his check with so much force it shattered the glass completely right in front of the penalty box. Luckily nobody was hurt, and after a short delay, play carried on.
Just over a minute after the delay, the Silverbacks opened the scoring for the eighth time in the pod season, after their top line’s skill took over.
Noah Serdachny took a pass in the neutral zone from William Lavigne and then carried the puck into the offensive zone and fed a pass down the left side to Simon Tassy, who in turn dropped the puck for Sullivan Mack. Mack was then quickly able to dangle around Ryan Shostak and pivot into a shooting position all in one smooth motion, and release a low shot past goaltender Roan Clarke.
The Vipers would tie the game four minutes later on a good slap-pass play between defenceman Trey Taylor and Ryan Shostak, who finished off the play for his fourth goal.
After 20 minutes, the game was tied 1-1.
Nobody would score in the second period, thanks to some strong goaltender between Owen Say of the Silverbacks and Clarke of the Vipers.
In the third, Vernon took the lead just 43 seconds in at the tail end of a power play, after Seth Bafaro’s point shot found it’s way through many bodies.
But as Salmon Arm has done all season long, they came back in the third. This time it only took four minutes to find the equalizer, and it was once again the top line providing the offence. Tassy used his deafening speed to push back the defence and when he was forced wide to his backhand, he decided to spin and throw a puck towards the net, where it hit Serdachny and went past Clarke.
Serdachny’s tally was his sixth goal of the season, just like Mack’s earlier in the game.
The rest of the third solved nothing thanks to some big stops from both goalies, particularly Say’s massive save on Zack Tonelli while shorthanded with under four minutes to go, and so to overtime things went, for the fourth time in the five meetings thus far.
This overtime, however, was different than the others, in that there were very few high danger chances. Tassy had a low shot turned away and Mack ripped a hot shot over the shoulder of Clarke, but that was nearly it. The only other dangerous chance was the most clutch save of the game, when Cameron MacDonald was all alone in the slot and absolutely denied by the glove of Owen Say with just 13 seconds to go in overtime.
The shootout went seven shooters deep, with Vernon’s Tyler Carpendale getting on the board first as the fourth shooter, only to have Simon Tassy equalize as the fourth Backs shooter. Nobody else would score until Nic Remissong as the seventh shooter. Drew Bennett had an opportunity to extend it after Remissong had scored, but couldn’t get his backhander on goal.
SASCU 3 STARS
- Ryan Shostak – VER – 1G, 1A
- Noah Serdachny – SA – 1G, 1A
- Roan Clarke – VER – 33/35, 6/7 in SO
FORTIS BC ENERGY PLAYER OF THE GAME
Trey Taylor– VER – 1A
WHAT’S NEXT
The Silverbacks are right back at it on Sunday against the West Kelowna Warriors, plus they’ll play Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, as they’re in the midst of six games in eight days.
Fans can stream all games on BCHL TV!
