The Silverbacks (2-6) will meet the defending BCHL and National champions on Friday night at 7pm in West Kelowna, the first of three meetings with the Warriors in October and seven in total.
The ‘Backs have lost two straight and six of their first eight to begin this 2016-17 season. The Silverbacks were shutout 9-0 last Saturday on the road versus the Wenatchee Wild (6-0-0-1), and have yet to win on home ice after losing 5-2 to the Merritt Centennials (4-3-1-0) last Friday at the Shaw Centre in Salmon Arm.
The ‘Backs have been outscored 40-22 in their first eight games, and outscored 18-7 on home ice in September.
Brandon Kegler allowed four goals on 30 shots on Friday in his return to Salmon Arm, and the 19-year-old gave up three goals in nine minutes in Wenatchee. Trevin Kozlowski allowed six on 39 shots in relief on Saturday. The Silverbacks were outshot 21-4 in the opening period south of the border, and 48-22 total.
Cameron Trott, Max Wutzke and Carter Cochrane sat out last weekend, all three defensemen with various injuries. But, Wutzke is expected to play this weekend. Trott hasn’t played since September 25th and Cochrane was injured in the second week of the regular season. Nathan Iannone watched on Saturday, while Ben Evanish sat out on Friday.
Salmon Arm’s power-play is running at 24-percent, 0-for-four in Wenatchee. The ‘Backs PK was seven-for-10 on Saturday and is at 62-percent overall.
With four points in total, the Silverbacks are one point ahead of the Surrey Eagles (1-6-0-1) who began the week at the bottom of the BCHL standings. The Eagles will visit the Shaw Centre this weekend, on Saturday at 7pm.
Salmon Arm’s community radio station ‘The Voice of the Shuswap’ will be at the Shaw Centre on Saturday. CKVS is the play-by-play home of each Silverbacks road game and will broadcast Saturday night’s game live from the Shaw Centre.
The ‘Backs will host Wenatchee on Sunday, November 20th at 3pm. The Silverbacks have 12 games in total in October, their busiest month of the season.
Each Silverbacks game is webcast PPV at bchl.fasthockey.com Each road game is broadcast live via voiceoftheshuswap.ca CKVS 93.7 FM and each home game is available audio only at mixlr.com/salmon-arm-silverbacks/
