Salmon Arm B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks beat the Penticton Vees 5-2 on home ice on Wednesday night to improve their record to 11-2-1 on the season, hopping the Vees for first place in the BCHL in the process.
GAME SUMMARY
There was action pretty much right from the get-go, with the shots on goal quickly rising to 7-7 right before the media timeout. Halfway through the period, the Silverbacks struck first, capitalizing on an offensive zone face-off and then using the point, as forward Daniel Rybarik fed a pass back to the line to Akito Hirose, who let a wrist shot go that Rybarik ended up redirecting for his seventh tally of the season.
Just a few minutes later, the Silverbacks struck on the man advantage after Jayden Price beat goaltender Yaniv Perets along the ice from a bad angle just as he was entering the offensive zone.
After 20 minutes of play, the score was 2-0 for the Silverbacks and they led in shots on goal by a commanding 20-10 margin.
Things continued well for Salmon Arm early in the second period, as Rybarik picked up his second goal of the game just 2:56 in after he blocked a clearing attempt with his shin pad and then beat Perets to the glove side with a wrist shot. Under two minutes later, however, the Vees got on the board, with leading scorer Jay O’Brien converting on a rebound to make it 3-1. Five minutes after that, the SIlverbacks restored their three-goal lead thanks to Nick Martino, who scored his first career BCHL goal on a rebound. Dom Garozzo picked up his first career assist on the goal after leading the odd-man rush that led to the goal.
The second half of the middle frame was pretty much the Ethan Langenegger show, with the Backs netminder stopping 20 of 21 shots he faced in the period.
Salmon Arm got a key insurance marker 6:09 into the third period courtesy of Simon Tassy, who picked the top corner on an odd-man rush to give the Silverbacks a huge 5-1 advantage. With under six minutes to go, Danny Weight scored his seventh of the season to make it 5-2, but that was as close as the Vees would get.
The win for Salmon Arm gives them a one-point lead on the Vees in the standings, who now have an 11-2-0 record. Although Penticton has one game in hand on the Backs, Salmon Arm is now in first in the Interior Division and first overall in the BCHL.
STANDOUT PERFORMANCES
Ethan Langenegger, Salmon Arm Silverbacks: 41 saves is impressive enough, but so too is 20 saves in one period, which Langenegger accomplished in the second. A lot of his stops came with the Backs short handed as they went 7-for-7 on the penalty kill. Langenegger now sports a .933 SV% and 2.00 G.A.A., while his nine wins are now one behind league leader Zach Borgiel.
Daniel Rybarik, Salmon Arm Silverbacks: Rybarik had his first multi-goal game since Sept. 21 against Victoria. His second goal held up as the game-winner, giving him four GWGs this season, which leads all skaters in the BCHL.
Jayden Price, Salmon Arm Silverbacks: Price notched his first power play goal of the season and also had a primary assist on Tassy’s insurance goal in the third period. He was also an important part of the penalty kill that was perfect.
For the full boxscore, click here.
STAT OF THE GAME
PK 7-for-7: It’s close between this stat and Langenegger’s 41 saves, but because we’ve already mentioned Langenegger’s superb performance, we’ll give a nod to the penalty killers here. There were certainly some chances given up, but any time your PK can go perfect on that many shorthanded situations, you deserve a shout out.
WHAT’S NEXT
The Silverbacks travel to West Kelowna Friday for their fourth meeting with the Warriors this season and then they host the Nanaimo Clippers for the only time at the Shaw Centre on Sunday at 3 p.m.
Both games can be heard on 91.5 EZ Rock with the pre-game show starting at 6:30 p.m., while fans can also stream the games on HockeyTV.
