A pair of games south of the border in Wenatchee Washington yielded the same negative result for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
On Friday, Dec. 15 the Silverbacks found themselves on the wrong side of a 4-0 shutout at the hands of the Wild.
Lucas Sowder lit the lamp seven minutes into the first frame and the score remained 1-0 Wild for the remainder of the period.
Another goal, this one from Josh Arnold, in the second period gave Wenatchee a two-goal lead heading into the final period.
Numerous penalties against the Silverbacks led to a one-sided third period. Wenatchee peppered Reid Cooper in net with 22 shots, while the Silverbacks could muster only four. Two of those shots, one from August Von Ungern and another from Sowder found the back of the net. Sowder’s goal, which came at the final buzzer was Wenatchee’s only power-play goal in seven opportunities on Friday night.
The Silverbacks served a total of 20 penalty minutes from 10 infractions.
“Obviously we weren’t very happy with that,” said Silverbacks head coach Scott Atkinson. He said many of the penalties in both games against Wenatchee were due to frustration with being unable to score.
The following night, the teams faced off again at the Town Toyota Center. Wenatchee kicked off the scoring in the opening 30 seconds with a goal from AJ Vanderbeck and didn’t let up, scoring twice more in the opening period.
Atkinson said the ‘Backs struggled from the start and had several comeback chances thwarted by hitting the post or otherwise being unable to find the back of the net.
Towards the end of the second frame, Wenatchee’s Jasper Weatherby capitalized on a power-play opportunity as Tanner Campbell was in the box for elbowing. The Wild tallied up another power-play goal in the last two minutes of the middle stanza — Sam Morton’s second goal of the game.
Four minutes into the final period, the Josh Arnold added another power play goal to the Wild’s now six-point lead.
Trevor Adams scored the Silverbacks’ first goal of the weekend seven minutes into the third on the five-on-four with former Silverback Nathan Iannone sitting in the penalty box for the Wild. Rhett Kingston and Tanner Campbell were credited with the assist.
Although Adams’ goal averted another shutout, it did nothing to cool off the red-hot Wenatchee offence. After the seventh Wenatchee goal of the game was scored eight minutes into the final period, the Silverbacks coaching staff had seen enough and pulled the beleaguered Kyle Dumba in favour of Cooper.
A fresh netminder did little to change the ‘Backs fortunes. Wenatchee scored three more goals over the next five minutes of play.
As Frustrations grew after the 10th Wenatchee goal; Kingston and Wild forward Jackson Wozniak each served an unsportsmanlike conduct minor.
In the final minute, with the game’s result already a foregone conclusion, Hudson Schandor scored for the Silverbacks sending them on their way home with a crushing 10-2 defeat.
The ‘Backs will look to snap their seven-game losing streak after the Christmas break when they host Vernon on Dec. 29 at the Shaw Centre.
