VERNON, BC- Isaac Lambert scored 48 seconds into the first period, and Gabriel Murrells-Allaway teamed up with Lukas Toth to turn aside a combined 20/21 to lead the Silverbacks to a 4-1 victory on the road in Vernon.
The Silverbacks got off to a flying start in the opening 20, when Issac Lambert pounced on a puck in the slot to make it 1-0 Backs’ on the first shot of the hockey game. The Vipers were quick to counter when forward Rhett Watt was sent in alone on a breakaway, but Silverbacks goaltender Gabriel Murrells-Allaway was equal to the task, stoning him twice with the left pad. Murrells-Allaway turned aside all six shots he faced. Following the play, Watt was assessed a slashing minor, sending the Silverbacks to the powerplay. Although they had a couple of chances to double the lead, Vipers goaltender Ethan David was up to the test turning aside both Silverbacks shots on the man advantage. The Silverbacks outshot the Vipers by a slight 9-6 margin in the opening frame.
The second period start was almost a carbon copy of the first. The Silverbacks looked to take a 2-0 lead early into the middle frame when defenseman Paul Dore snapped a shot past a screened Ethan David, but it was short-lived as Nathan Bohmer was called for goaltender interference and the goal was wiped away. The Vipers had some looks but failed to convert the man advantage. The Silverbacks got into more penalty trouble when defenceman Owen Desilets got the gate for tripping, and the Vipers made the Backs’ pay. Luke Buss snapped a shot past goaltender Lukas Toth just before the penalty expired, knotting it at 1-1. The Silverbacks responded very quickly with the Nathan Mackie, Aidan Lindblad, and Owen Beckner line. Beckner picked the puck up in the slot and ripped it over the glove side of David to restore the one-goal lead for the Silverbacks. The Backs’ outshot the Vipers 11-8 for a two-period total of 20-14.
In the final frame, the Silverbacks continued the pressure; again, the Beckner-Mackie-Lindblad line contributing to the scoresheet. This time it was Mackie getting a stick on a Hanvold point shot, and it found the back of the net to double the lead. The Vipers had a chance to draw within a goal on a powerplay, but goaltender Lukas Toth turned the two shots aside. The Silverbacks salted this one away when Nathan Morin sniped a shot short side on David to make it 4-1. The Silverbacks outshot the Vipers 26-21. Murrells-Allaway, who played the first half of the game in between the pipes for the Silverbacks, turned aside all ten shots he faced. Toth turned aside 10 of 11.
Assistant Coach Carter Cochrane had this to say on the win.
“Overall, very impressed with the effort of the whole group. I thought we were structured and let the game come to us,” said Cochrane. “The young players built off a strong weekend at camp and carried that momentum over into the game. There’s going to be a learning curve for all new players to the league, and there were definitely some areas of our game that we’ll try to clean up moving forward, but there were many positives to build off of,” added Cochrane.
The Silverbacks will be back in action Friday night on the road against the West Kelowna Warriors.
