Salmon Arm, B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks fell 5-2 to the Penticton Vees on Friday night at the Shaw Centre, despite firing 43 shots on goal.
Their record now stands at 21-16-2, tied with the Wenatchee Wild in the standings for third place with 44 points. The Backs have a game in hand on the Wild.
GAME SUMMARY
The first period was scoreless, but there were certainly some chances for both sides, with the Backs firing 11 shots on goal and the Vees firing 14 on Ethan Langenegger. There were also no penalties on either side in the opening frame.
Things really started to open up in the second period, beginning just over three minutes in.
First, the Silverbacks opened the scoring just 15 seconds into their first power play of the game. Captain Akito Hirose fired a shot from the top of the circle on the left side and Noah Wakeford was able to slide the rebound across to Daniel Rybarik, who was waiting patiently at the side of the goal and potted it home.
The goal was Rybarik’s 21st of the season and fourth on the power play.
The Vees responded just 39 seconds later, after a Lukas Sillinger cross-ice pass found linemate Jackson Niedermayer, who roofed it for his 12th of the season.
With the score knotted 1-1, the Backs turned up the pressure, but Yaniv Perets made a flurry of huge stops to keep things close, including stopping Luke Mylymok and Simon Tassy on separate breakaways. Langenegger also came up big, stopping Darwin Lakaduk on a breakaway too.
Eventually, Salmon Arm broke through on a 2-on-1 rush, as Wakeford fed Rybarik, who then returned the favour, allowing Wakeford to easily deposit the puck into a yawning cage to put the home side up 2-1.
With just 17 seconds in the period, however, Vees captain David Silye walked off the boards and into the slot before burying it to make the score 2-2 heading into the intermission.
The game turned quickly at the start of the third, as the Vees scored two goals 26 seconds apart. First, Jack Barnes got a breakaway pass, and though he nearly lost the puck, he recovered and banged a puck home past the glove side of Langenegger. The Vees then were handed a power play and Niedermayer notched his second of the game from in tight for a 4-2 Penticton lead.
The Backs had some good looks midway through the third period, but they couldn’t apply enough pressure late to make enough of a difference. The Vees added an empty net goal with 1:01 remaining to erase any doubt and make it a 5-2 final.
TOP PERFORMERS
Line of Martino, Schofield, Tassy — Salmon Arm Silverbacks: This entire line was given a shout out by assistant coach Carter Cochrane in the post-game interview. They generated plenty of offensive chances and just couldn’t quite buy a goal.
“They seemed to really be bringing it every shift…When guys like that are bringing the energy and the enthusiasm to our group, they are easy guys to follow.” — Assistant coach Carter Cochrane
Devan Newhook — Salmon Arm Silverbacks: Newhook was paired with captain Akito Hirose and the two generated a ton of offensive looks in this one. Newhook also nearly had his first career BCHL goal about six minutes into the second period, but was robbed by Perets.
“Coming back from injury, it has been a tough road for him… but now back after Christmas, it looks like he’s starting to move the puck better. He’s got a little bit more jump back into his game. He’s a guy that we expected to be a huge contributor coming into the year and it looks like he’s starting to find that.” — Cochrane
The ‘Red Line’: Breault, Rybarik & Wakeford — Salmon Arm Silverbacks: Rybarik and Wakeford each had a goal and an assist, and even though Breault was held off the scoresheet for just the second time in eight games, he still contributed offensively.
For the full boxscore, click here.
STAT OF THE GAME
2 Vees Goals 26 Seconds Apart to Start the 3rd: This was without a doubt the turning point of the game, as the Vees sucked the life out of the building and took control of the game for the first time.
THEY SAID IT
Cochrane on the early third period goals allowed:
“It’s just attention to detail. I think it starts with the last minute of play in the second period. There’s got to be some game management, clock awareness, just knowing those goals are huge momentum swings — last two minutes of periods, first two minutes of periods. You feel like you control the play for the first two periods — we were really happy with how we were playing up to that point, we just need to make sure we’re sharp there. We can’t be over-committing offensively in the last minute when you have a 2-1 lead and defensively to start the third period there, we’ve got to make sure we’re not letting guys get in behind us.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The Silverbacks host the league-leading Coquitlam Express on Sunday afternoon with that contest set for 3 p.m. at the Shaw Centre.
All games can be heard on 91.5 EZ Rock with the pre-game show starting half an hour before puck drop. Fans can also stream the game on HockeyTV.
