The Salmon Arm Silverbacks lost their shot at a clean-sweep of the Vernon Vipers Friday night, taking a 4-1 loss on the Vipers’ home ice.
Heading in to the Jan. 11 game, the Silverbacks were a perfect 5-0 against Vernon this season, with four of those games being decided by just one goal, among an overtime finish.
Vernon’s Coleton Bilodeau opened the scoring late in the first period, making an unassisted goal against Salmon Arm’s Matthew Armitage. Josh Latta of the Vipers would double their lead just a few minutes later, firing one in off the assist from Connor Marritt on a short-handed play.
Matthew Verboon, freshly back on the ice with Silverbacks after his trip to the World Juniors, scored Salmon Arm’s lone goal of the evening, assisted by John Little and Akito Hirose. Verboon made a pass to Little, who passed it right back Verboon who tapped it in.
The second period saw just a single goal, and again it would be in the Vipers’ favour. Connor Marritt would take the credit for this one, with the assist from Latta and Landon Fuller tagged onto the point.
The third period saw a pincer move on the blue line that turned into a two-on-one push by the Vipers. Elan Bar-Lev-Wise took the initiative and landed the final goal of the game, assisted by Nicholas Cherkowski, ending it in a 4-1 finale for Vernon.
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The Silverbacks were looking to go 2-0 against the Powell RiverKings this season, but a hot start faltered late in the game and it ended in a 4-3 shootout loss Jan. 12.
Making his first start in goal since Dec. 16, Ethan Langenegger made his first big save seven minutes in on a break down the left wing. Salmon arm would turn the puck around, with Matthew Verboon scoring off a frantic pass from John Little for the opening goal early in the first.
With under four minutes left in the first, Salmon Arm went to their first power play of the game and quickly were able to extend their lead. Nick Unruh sent a one timer from the top of the right circle into the top left corner, with Darren Rizzolo picking up the assist as his first point as a Silverback.
In the second there was just one goal, as a Ryan Pouliot shot from the right circle found its way to the back of the net for the Kings.
A late power play transferred to the third period, and Salmon Arm drew another in the final frame to give them 54 seconds of five-on-three power play time. The Silverbacks were unable to capitalize, keeping Powell River within one goal, which would count late in the period as the Kings tied the game in the frantic final minutes.
Mitchell Williams found a rebound in front of the goal and lifted it over a sprawled Langenegger to tie the game. A minute later it looked as if Salmon Arm had the win, as Aiden Jenner scored off an assist from Andy Stevens. The Kings would pull their goalie and a huge pass from Salmon Arm turned the other way and wound up in their net off the stick of Ryan Brushett. In overtime, both teams exchanged chances but neither goalie would yield.
Heading to the shootout, one of the teams’ streaks had to end. Salmon Arm was two for two and the Kings had won their single shootout of the season. Mitchell Williams of the Kings was stopped on the first attempt, Unruh scored for Salmon Arm and Langenegger denied Christian Buono. Matthew Verboon and Akito Hirose were both stopped, while Brushett scored to send the game to a fourth shooter. There it was Levi Glasman scoring, and Justin Wilson would attempt to extend the shootout for Salmon Arm but Adamyk came up with the save.
The following night against the Nanaimo Clippers had Salmon Arm coming out hot and keeping the pressure right to the end.
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Matthew Verboon managed to score in all three Silverbacks games over the weekend, picking up the first goal against Nanaimo at six minutes, assisted by Little and Wilson. Wilson would pick up a goal of his one with two minutes left in the first, assisted by Sam MacBean and Verboon.
In the second, John Little picked up a point on a late power-play, assisted by Trevor Adams and Wilson. Heading into the third, the Silverbacks had a comfortable 3-0 lead.
Early in the final period, Noah Wakeford picked up Salmon Arm’s fourth goal of the night on another power-play, assisted by Rizzolo and Andy Stevens. Nanaimo would reply with their first goal about a minute later, and the score would lie at 4-1 until the final two minutes.
The end of the third would turn into a furious back and forth affair, with four goals recorded in two minutes. Nanaimo’s Sammy Steele opened the scoring, Verboon made his second of the night a minute later, Hudson Schandor scored a second for the Silverbacks and Nanaimo’s Ethan Scardina made a final goal with 20 seconds remaining. Salmon Arm held onto the lead throughout, ending the game 6-3.
The Silverbacks play another triple-header this coming weekend, visiting Alberni Valley, Nanaimo and Cowichan Valley on their home turf.
