A weekend road trip to the lower mainland yielded two losses for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
The ‘Backs faced the Chilliwack Chiefs on Friday night. It was the two teams’ second meeting of the season, the first ended in a 4-1 loss for Salmon Arm.
The game began slowly; neither team was able to get on the scoreboard in the opening frame.
Four minutes into the second period, Trey Thomas opened the scoring for Salmon Arm with his first BCHL goal, assisted by Carter Stephenson and Daine Dubois.
A fight broke out between Silverback Spencer Hora and Kale Kane of the Chiefs just after the five-minute mark, sending both players to the box for five minutes.
Elijiah Barriga took advantage of the extra skating room during the four-on-four, scoring a goal and giving Stephenson his second assist of the night.
Jordan Kawaguchi got the Chiefs on the board a minute later.
Another fight, this time between Max Wutzke and Ben Fanjoy took place before the halfway mark of the second.
Chilliwack closed the period with two more goals, one from Colin Bernard and another from Kohen Olichefski.
Kawaguchi scored his second of the night early in the third leaving the score 4-2 for Chilliwack.
Less than two minutes later, Austin Chorney made it a one-goal game assisted by Carson Bolduc and Jared Turcotte.
Chilliwack’s Will Calverley scored on the power play following a roughing penalty on Jared Turcotte at 11:43.
With two minutes remaining, Jake Smith scored another goal for the Chiefs bookending a 6-3 win for his team.
The following day, the ‘Backs travelled up the Fraser Valley to face the Langley Rivermen. The only previous meeting between the Silverbacks and Rivermen this season ended in a 6-3 loss for Salmon Arm.
Langley’s offence lit up as soon as they took the ice, scoring four times before the ten-minute mark.
Silverbacks goaltender Nic Tallarico was pulled from the game and replaced by Trevin Kozlowski after the third goal.
Eleven minutes into the game an altercation occured between Silverback Nathan Iannone and Langley’s Spencer Berry which yielded seven penalty minutes each—five minutes for fighting and an additional minor for both skaters.
In the final seconds of the first frame Josh Latta managed to get the ‘Backs on the scoreboard with a power play goal, assisted by Justin Wilson and Bolduc.
Four minutes into the second period, Brendan Budy scored again for Langley, putting his team ahead by four goals.
Jared Turcotte got a shot past Langley goaltender Bo Didur six minutes into the second, but it would be the ‘Backs last of the game. Langley scored three more goals before the end of the period.
The Rivermen scored a further three goals in the third period wrapping up an 11-2 blowout victory.
The Silverbacks totalled 27 penalty minutes from 15 infractions while Langley skaters served 15 minutes from eight infractions.
The ‘Backs host the Trail Smoke Eaters on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
