The Silverbacks (3-1) begin a home-and-home set with the Penticton Vees (3-1) tonight at 7 pm in the South Okanagan as the two teams meet for the first time in this BCHL season.
The Silverbacks are coming in off of a 4-2 road win in Trail on Saturday night, September 27th. The Vees will be playing their first home game of the regular season and are coming off of a 5-0 shutout loss to the Centennials in Merritt last Saturday night.
Tonight is the debut for the newest Silverback, Josh Blanchard. The 18-year-old forward from Kelowna, BC was acquired earlier this week from the Surrey Eagles but began 2013-14 with the Penticton before being traded.
The Vees finished first in the Interior Division last season (36-16-2-4), 19 points ahead of the fifth place Silverbacks. Penticton had a 19-7-0-3 record at the South Okanagan Events Centre last season while the Silverbacks are 3-0 on the road to begin this season. The Vees have 10 returnees with Hunter Miska back between the pipes but their top four leading scorers from 2013-14 have moved on. Rookies Tyson Jost and Mitch Newsome are leading the way for Penticton with seven points each in their first four games.
The Silverbacks won the 2013-14 season series 5-1-0-1, outscoring the Vees 22-14. The Backs won the first five games and had a record of 2-1-0-1 in Penticton with all four of the games decided by one goal, including two in OT.
This is the Vees sixth home opener at the SOEC and they have won their previous five including last year’s 4-1 win over Merritt. The Silverbacks will host Penticton tomorrow (Saturday October 4) at 7p.m. at the Shaw Centre.
