PHOTO: TAMI QUAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Vernon, B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks kept on rolling on Sunday afternoon, defeating the West Kelowna Warriors 4-1 to grab their third consecutive victory.
The Backs are now 9-5-3 on the season, while the Warriors fall to 6-8-2.
GAME SUMMARY
Similar to Saturday, the Backs had a strong first period, generating plenty of scoring opportunities and out-shooting the Warriors 17-9.
Nathan Morgan opened the scoring on a power play for Salmon Arm with under two minutes to play in the opening frame, after receiving a pass from Drew Bennett at the right face-off dot and quickly releasing a shot past the blocker side of Johnny Derrick.
Under three minutes into the second period, the Backs doubled their lead when the line of Mathieu Bourgault, Danny Ciccarello and Philippe Jacques connected on a goal off the rush. Ciccarello entered down the right wing side and fed Jacques in the middle who then passed off to his right to Bourgault, who one-timed it past Derrick right along the ice for his second goal of the season.
The Warriors would cut into the lead just under six minutes later thanks to Porter Dawson’s second goal of the season, but not long after the Sullivan Mack, Noah Serdachny and Simon Tassy line responded.
Backs defenceman Tucker Hartmann started the play by activating in the offensive zone and trying to take a puck from the corner to the front of the net. While the puck went through the crease and out the other side, Sullivan Mack was able to pick it up and quickly spotted Simon Tassy open in front of the net. The pass from Mack to Tassy happened before the Warriors could react, and just like that, it was 3-1 Silverbacks.
The Backs entered the third period up 3-1 and were able to effectively shut down the Warriors. They killed off a key penalty with just under seven minutes to go and then Tassy scored his second of the game into the empty net with 1:35 remaining in the game. Tassy now leads the entire BCHL in goals with 15.
Say, meanwhile, finished with 32 saves on 33 shots and won all three starts this past week. He stopped 93 of 97 shots he saw in the three games for a .958 save percentage.
For the full boxscore from Sunday’s game, click here.
The Backs are now 6-3-1 in their last 10 games.
THEY SAID IT
“We kept it simple as best we could and tried to limit their opportunities off the rush and in transition and we were extremely disciplined to keep them off the power play, which is kind of becoming a hallmark of our game…It was just a really solid, mature win from our group where we didn’t let them get much and we capitalized on the opportunities that they gave us.” — Assistant coach Carter Cochrane
SASCU 3 STARS
- Owen Say – SA – 32/33
- Nathan Morgan – SA – 1G
- Johnny Derrick– WK – 38/41
FORTIS BC ENERGY PLAYER OF THE GAME
Marcus Joughin – WK
WHAT’S NEXT
The Silverbacks only have three games remaining in the BCHL pod season: Wednesday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. against the West Kelowna Warriors; Friday, May 7 at 7 p.m. against the Vernon Vipers; and Saturday, May 8 at 6 p.m. against the West Kelowna Warriors.
Fans can stream all games on BCHL TV!
