PHOTO: TAMI QUAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Vernon, B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks saw another 3-1 lead slip away on Thursday afternoon, but recovered in the third period to come away with a 6-4 victory.
The Backs record is now 4-2-2, while the Warriors drop to 3-3-1.
GAME SUMMARY
For the seventh time in the eight games so far this season, Salmon Arm opened the scoring on Thursday.
This time it was Noah Serdachny deking out goaltender Johnny Derrick just outside the crease area and finishing on the backhand to make it 1-0 just over five minutes in.
Five minutes later, West Kelowna converted on their first power play to tie the game, thanks to forward Riley Sharun.
Under two minutes later, Sullivan Mack responded for the Silverbacks on their first power play, after receiving a pass in the high slot from Serdachny and beating Derrick with a low shot.
Before the period was done, the Backs added to their lead, thanks to a great individual effort from Daniel Panetta who forced his way into the zone up the middle and then let a quick shot go that found the back of the net for his fourth goal of the Pod season.
West Kelowna’s push back really started in the second half of the middle frame, with Cameron Hicklin finding a loose puck just outside the crease and chipping it home at the 10:12 mark to make it 3-2. With under two minutes remaining in the period, Tyler Cristall smacked home a rebound on a power play to tie things up 3-3.
After letting a 3-1 lead evaporate before their eyes on Wednesday against Vernon and turn into a 5-3 deficit, the Backs weren’t about to let that repeat itself, and 8:25 into the third, rookie forward Philippe Jacques stepped up with a massive breakaway goal to give Salmon Arm a 4-3 lead. He picked quite the time to get his first BCHL goal.
Just 2:33 after Jacques’ goal, Serdachny got a breakaway of his own and went to the backhand yet again to give the Silverbacks some insurance at 5-3.
While the Silverbacks let their guard down with the 5-3 lead and allowed Carter Wilkie to score on a breakaway with 1:45 remaining, Simon Tassy hit the empty net a minute later to put things out of reach at 6-4 and get the Backs the much-needed two points.
Liam Vanderkooi made 25 stops on the afternoon to pick up his first career BCHL win for the Silverbacks.
For the full boxscore from Thursday, click here.
THEY SAID IT
“The biggest adjustment we have to make is we need to understand that we have to up our game when we’re playing with the lead, instead of kind of maintaining and being in cruise control. So two games in a row now and a number out of the eight that we’ve played so far where we’ve been the better team to start the game. We’ve shown that we have the ability to start on time. There’s only been one time where we haven’t scored the first goal in the game. But it”s just the understanding that just like we do as a team when teams get up on us, there’s a pushback and the pushback is always harder than the initial first push. We need to elevate our game to be able to withstand that.” — Asst. coach Carter Cochrane
SASCU 3 STARS
- Noah Serdachny – SA – 2G, 1A
- Daniel Panetta – SA – 1G, 1A
- Tyson Jugnauth – WK – 3A
FORTIS BC ENERGY PLAYER OF THE GAME
Carter Wilkie– WK – 1G
WHAT’S NEXT
The Silverbacks have Friday off and then play Saturday and Sunday, plus Tuesday and Wednesday, as they’re in the midst of six games in eight days.
Fans can stream all games on BCHL TV!
