Salmon Arm, B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks (15-4-1) host the Trail Smoke Eaters (13-6-2) on Saturday night, one day after falling to them in a nail-biter 5-4.
The Backs fired 44 shots on goaltender Logan Terness on Friday, including 13 in the third period, but couldn’t find the equalizer.
This is the fourth of six head-to-head meetings between Trail and Salmon Arm. The Backs defeated the Smoke Eaters twice in their own building in September, winning 4-2 and 3-2 on Sept. 13 and 14, respectively. The Interior Division rivals will also battle on Dec. 15 in Salmon Arm and on Feb. 21 in Trail, the second-last game of the regular season.
Tonight’s game has a 6 p.m. puck drop.
3 Storylines
1) Renewed Rivalry?
At the buzzer of Friday’s game, things got fairly heated, particularly between Philippe Lapointe and William Poirier, and between Noah Wakeford and Powell Connor. Before that, the contest was fairly tame, with just four combined power plays and a couple of off-setting minors handed out. Will we see the rough finish carry over into Saturday or will it be another relatively clean game?
2) Knock Terness Off His Game
Terness played quite well Friday, that there’s no doubt, but he was also able to see too many pucks.
At times, the Silverbacks did a good job of driving the net and getting in his grill, but there’s definitely room for improvement in that regard. Making life difficult on the rookie is a must for Saturday’s rematch.
3) Consistency
While the Silverbacks out-chanced Trail by a significant margin and were buzzing at times, they also made a few grave errors in bad spots at certain times on Friday. Eliminating or minimizing those errors will go a long way to improving their result.
Upcoming Milestones
Akito Hirose: 3 points from 100 career BCHL points. Also 5 games from 175 career BCHL games.
Nick Unruh: 4 assists from 50 career BCHL assists.
Noah Wakeford: 1 goal from 25 career BCHL goals.
Current Point Streaks
Akito Hirose: 8 games (13A)
Daniel Rybarik: 5 games (5G, 2A)
Noah Wakeford: 5 games (2G, 6A)
Nick Martino: 3 games (1G, 3A)
Tune In
Tonight’s game will be on EZ Rock as usual and will also be streamed live on HockeyTV.
