A stellar first half period by Matthew Armitage fuelled Salmon Arm to a 4-0 shutout over the Nanaimo Clippers Saturday night.
The Silverbacks netminder had to stop three grade-A chances in the first 10 minutes, but that allowed his team to find their feet and come away with their first win of the weekend. Three and a half minutes in, Marcus Mitchell the former Silbverback was setup alone in the slot but was denied. Four minutes later Tyler Williams worked his way from the left corner with a backhand shot that was again foiled by Armitage. Right before the midway mark of the period, Kyler Kovich nearly opened the scoring for the home side but again couldn’t find the back of the net.
On a later penalty kill, a gift for Justin Wilson led to him with the puck alone in front of the goal. An errant pass from the corner was picked off, and Wilson scored his first of the night to take the team lead in goals with 18. That lead would be doubled with 41 seconds left on a pretty passing play nearly identical to the previous night in Alberni Valley. Noah Wakeford fed the puck to Nick Unruh to the right of the goal, and he passed it across the ice to Hudson Schandor on the left for his 15th of the season. The Clippers nearly found life with seven seconds late in the first, but their leading scorer Ethan Scardina was setup in the slot but Armitage came to his team’s aid.
In the second period, Matthew Verboon drove the goal, and dropped the puck back to Justin Wilson. On the inside of the left circle Wilson went five hole for his second tally of the night giving Salmon Arm the 3-0 lead. Less than 30 seconds Nanaimo would counter with Tyler Williams passing the puck to Marcus Mitchell to the left of the goal, but the sharp angled shot cleared the net. With about five minutes left, Jack Sampson from Salmon Arm and Isiah Hendricks from the Clippers went into the right corner with Hendricks staying down for a few minutes and left the game with his mouth bleeding. Nanaimo was unhappy not to see a call on the ice, and would get chippy to finish the period, but luckily that didn’t carry over too much in the third.
Five minutes in there, a dump in was corralled by Trevor Adams behind the net. A tired Clippers line was unable to stop him as he wrapped the puck around the goal and found Tyson Gayfer out front. Gayfer made no mistake scoring to end a 10 game point drought. Two minutes later Aiden Hansen-Bukata was setup in the high slot, but the leading scorer for defencemen on the Nanaimo side was turned away.
Nanaimo earned a late power play, but couldn’t prevent Matthew Armitage from shutting them out on home ice. It was the second cleansheet for Armitage echoing a shutout he had earlier this season in Vernon.
Salmon Arm concludes their roadtrip tomorrow with a visit to the Duncan where they take on the Cowichan Valley Capitals who beat the Clippers 4-2 on Friday night.
Key Performer:
Without Matthew Armitage’s first period supremacy, the Salmon Arm Silverbacks could easily be looking back at a very different game. He made key saves, and allowed his team to build a lead so they could play more comfortably.
