The Silverbacks hold a 4-0 record against the Vernon Vipers this season. The season series has been extremely close though with three of those games going beyond 60 minutes, and the lone regulation win for Salmon Arm was by just a 2-0 scoreline.
Both meetings in the Shaw Centre have gone to overtime with Hudson Schandor and Olson Werenka scoring the winners.
Salmon Arm is on the tail end of a rough weekend. They played in Wenatchee Friday night before driving home overnight and playing last night against the Capitals. In Wenatchee, the Silverbacks earned a point forcing the Wild to overtime, but last night at home they fell 6-3 to the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
Vernon had Saturday night off, but played and lost 3-1 Friday night taking on the Capitals themselves.
Both teams are missing some key players for the game tonight. Jesse Lansdell is potentially one of the top scoring players in the league, but is sitting out from his third suspension of the season, this one lasting 16 games. Most of the bodies gone for Salmon Arm are on the back end. Olson Werenka sits out his third of a four game suspension, and this will be the final game Akito Hirose misses from suspension. Sol Seibel was hurt Friday night in Wenatchee, and missed Saturday’s match.
Salmon Arm and Vernon have played the same amount of games this season, and Salmon Arm sits three points ahead in the standings with sole place of fifth in the Interior Division. A win Saturday night in Trail bumped the Smoke Eaters one point ahead of Vernon for sixth in the division, but Trail has played four more games than both the Vipers and Silverbacks. The two teams today are the only pair in the division yet to have scored 100 goals this season. Salmon Arm has 96 through 33 games and the Vipers have 92.
Players to Watch:
Silverbacks: He had three goals in his first 26 games, but Noah Wakeford has burst out with four in his last five. None are going to wind up on a Top 10 highlight reel, but he’s getting to the gritty areas and being rewarded for his efforts. He’s currently second in team scoring with 25 points through 31 games.
Vipers: The lone player to score for Vernon Friday night was defenceman Michael Young. An unusal number for a blueliner, Young has more goals (8) than assists (5) this season. Four of his goals have come against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
TUNE IN
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