PHOTO: CHERIE MORGAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Penticton, B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks out-shot the Vees 37-23 on Friday night in the Okanagan Cup semifinal, but Penticton came away with a 5-2 win thanks to three third period goals and a power play that went 2-for-4.
GAME SUMMARY
The Silverbacks played a very solid opening period, as the Vees didn’t register a shot on goal until the 11-minute mark. While most of the Backs early chances were from the outside, they did carry an early 6-1 leads in shot on goal and limited Penticton’s ability to play with the puck in the offensive zone.
Just over 12 minutes into the first, the Vees scored just 14 seconds into their first power play of the game, after Quinn Hutson buried it from the slot following a pass from down low from Connor Bouchard.
After 20 minutes, the Vees held a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard but the Backs had a 10-4 advantage in shots on goal.
Under two minutes into the second, Penticton doubled their lead after Jacob Quillan took a pass from Ryan Upson in the slot and buried the one-timer home.
The Backs responded before the second period was done, thanks to Sullivan Mack’s wrist shot from the top of the circle on the power play, which beat a screened Yaniv Perets.
After 40 minutes, the score was 2-1 for Penticton.
Early in the third, the home side increased their lead to 3-1, after Matteo Costantini whipped a cross-ice feed to Bouchard, who scored his first as a Vee. Four and a half minutes later, Bouchard potted home a rebound on a power play to make the score 4-1.
Logan Shaw made things interesting by scoring his first of the Okanagan Cup with just under nine minutes remaining in the game. After the Vees failed to clear the zone, Braden Fischer got off a backhander from the slot that was stopped, as was the rebound attempt from Mat Bourgault, but Bourgault stuck with the play and followed up by centering a pass to Shaw, who just barely snuck his shot over the goal line.
Unfortunately, just 1:41 after Shaw made it 4-2, the Vees would put things out of reach when Luc Wilson potted home a rebound off a point shot to make the score 5-2, which held up as the final.
In the end, the Backs out-shot Penticton in every period, but only went 1-for-6 on the power play, while the Vees capitalized on their chances and went 2-for-4 with the man advantage.
For the full boxscore, click here.
