Salmon Arm, B.C. — The Salmon Arm Silverbacks lost 5-4 in overtime to the Vernon Vipers on Sunday afternoon at Kal Tire Place, despite jumping out to a 3-0 lead early in the second period.
Salmon Arm’s record now stands at 23-19-3, two points back of the Vernon Vipers for third place in the Interior Division. The Backs have a one point lead on Wenatchee, who are in fifth place with 48 points.
GAME SUMMARY
The Silverbacks opened the scoring just under four minutes into the game, after forward Luke Mylymok retrieved the puck in the left side corner off an offensive zone face-off and fed a backhand pass to the high slot for William Poirier. Although Poirier didn’t connect entirely on the shot, the off-speed change-up fooled Riley Herbst and made it’s way to the back of the net past his glove.
Salmon Arm would get two power play opportunities later in the first period but couldn’t capitalize on either and went into the intermission up 1-0.
The Backs’ hustle led to two quick goals early in the second period, first from Poirier again and then from Logan Shaw.
At the 1:50 mark, Mylymok and Poirier caused a turnover in the corner, as defenceman Keigo Hachisuka tried to pass one behind his own net and instead it was picked off by Nick Unruh. Unruh quickly fed a deft pass from behind the goal to Poirier at the side of the net, who roofed it past the blocker side of Herbst.
Just 39 seconds later, Sam Schofield was the first player to a loose puck behind the goal off another offensive zone draw and quickly centered a backhand pass to Shaw, who whipped a snap shot top shelf to make the game 3-0.
The Silverbacks surrendered their first goal of the game at the 8:14 mark of the period, after Ryan Shostak fired a puck off the left pad of Adams on a Vernon 2-on-1 rush, which was quickly deposited to the back of the goal by Ben Sanderson.
Two minutes later, Silverback rookie Jarod Semchuk tried to salvage some of the momentum that was starting to go the other way by dropping the mitts with Brett Fudger, for what turned out to be a very spirited tilt.
Unfortunately, the Vipers kept cutting into the lead. With 3:16 to go in the period, Jackson Caller took a pass from Ben Helgeson and snapped one past goaltender Grant Adams right from the left face-off dot to make it a 3-2 game.
After 40 minutes, the Backs still had a one-goal advantage, this time at 3-2.
Just over three minutes into the third period, Matt Kowalski went 1-on-1 down the left wing side on Zach Gabruch and then decided to stop up and wait for help. He found that help in the form of Jo-Jo Tanaka-Campbell, who was heading to the net and knocked Kowalski’s pass out of the air and past Adams to tie the game 3-3.
The Backs, however, responded just 39 seconds later, this time after Herbst couldn’t control the rebound off Akito Hirose’s point shot. After Hirose let it go from the left point, Poirier came around from behind the net to knock home the rebound for his first BCHL hat-trick.
Later in the period, the Vipers would get their second power play of the game and converted, after Landon Fuller knocked home a rebound from in front.
It turned out 60 minutes wasn’t enough to determine a winner and so the game headed to 3-on-3 overtime with the score at 4-4. In the extra frame, each team had just a couple chances, as it appeared both sides picked their spots a bit more carefully. Just moments after Adams made a clutch left pad save on Max Bulawka, Cameron MacDonald hopped off the bench and picked up the puck right away in the offensive zone, firing a puck past the glove of Adams to end the game with just 10 seconds remaining.
TOP PERFORMERS
Mylymok, Poirier, Unruh Line— Salmon Arm Silverbacks: This line was far and away the best for the Backs, providing three of the four goals, plus tons of chances.
Asst. coach Carter Cochrane on the trio : “They just had a really good week overall…they’ve been trending in the right direction since the Christmas break here. Weren’t really getting the bounces going their way all the time, but I think you really saw today they were in front of the net, they were at the house, they were putting pucks into the right areas and just out-working teams.”
Jarrod Semchuk — Salmon Arm Silverbacks: Semchuk’s fight with Fudger provided a spark — it’s just unfortunate it came right before the media timeout.
Cochrane on : “It’s a young guy stepping up when the team needs it. You could kind of start to see the game shifting towards Vernon there — they’ve gone the 3-1 goal, they were taking it to us. Jarrod is young guy but he recognized an opportunity to step up and give the team a spark.”
Andreozzi-Sansbury D-Pairing — Salmon Arm Silverbacks: This new pairing moved the puck efficiently and was often out against the Vipers’ top line.
Cochrane on “They had a great weekend. We switched up the pairs a little bit and got those two guys together for the last two games and they really rolled with it. They played big minutes; they played hard. They did a really good job of shutting down Vernon’s top line for the most part today and Penticton’s top guys last night didn’t get anything.”
For the full boxscore, click here.
STAT OF THE GAME
3-0 Lead Gone: For the most part, the Silverbacks effort was strong on Sunday, but the fact is they let a 3-0 lead slip away just one week after letting a 2-0 lead disappear against the same opponent.
Cochrane on moving forward:
“We’ve been stringing together a consistent effort here, where it seems like there isn’t a lot of lulls from our group — it’s just we need to start producing the results. We talked about learning lessons and moral victories and all that, and how they are kind of pointless at this time of year, but I do think we are building in the right direction. It might not indicate it every night on the scoresheet or in the standings, but we think we’re trending definitely in the right direction. We think that if we can focus in on some of those small details, we’re very close here to being able to do something special.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The Silverbacks head to the Island for games with Powell River and Victoria on Friday and Saturday and then wrap up the 3-in-3 with a Sunday matinee in Surrey against the Eagles.
The 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.
