The Salmon Arm Silverbacks rebounded from a 4-0 loss to the Merritt Centennials with a 5-2 win.
Both games, Feb. 24 and March 1, took place at Nicola Valley Memorial Arena. The latter began with an early first-period goal for the home team. Salmon Arm’s Ty Paisley responded minutes later with a marker assisted by Ryan Gillespie and Patrick Raftery.
At 3:11 in the second frame, Cole Cooksey delivered a tie-breaker, assisted by Marcus Broberg. The Cents evened things up again a little way past the halfway mark, but the Silverbacks retook the lead at 17:49 with a goal by Raftery, assisted by Gillespie and Paisley.
Third period saw a few penalties for the Silverbacks and a couple for the Cents, including roughing calls at 17:38 for Salmon Arm’s Nathaniel Davis and Merritt’s Matthew Gillard. This was after Salmon Arm secured a 5-2 lead with a goal at 13:58 by Tanner Walos (assisted by Riley Ashe and Isaac Lambert) and an empty netter scored by Nathaniel Davis, assisted by Paisley and Raftery.
After pulling off a win in front of a crowd of 676, on March 2 the Silverbacks were back on home ice where they played the Trail Smoke Eaters before a crowd of 1,580.
Cheers from the supportive crowd, however, wouldn’t be enough to lift the Silverbacks above the Smoke.
Trail lit up the board 16 seconds into the first period. The score would remain at 1-0 until about the halfway mark in the second frame, when the Smoke Eaters capitalized on a slashing call that sent Tristan Allen to the sin bin. Minutes later, the Smoke Eaters added another goal.
Cooksey delivered Salmon Arm’s single at 12:01 in the third period, assisted by Reid Varkonyi. Trail’s final goal came at 17:47 with an empty netter.
Players on both teams picked up numerous two-minute penalty calls throughout the game, with Trail’s totalling 10-minutes, and 16 minutes for Salmon Arm.
Goalies on both sides saw a similar amount of action, with the Silverbacks’ Eli Pulver stopping 26 shots on net, and the Smoke Eaters’ Teagan Kendrick stopping 29.
The Silverbacks remain in third place in the BCHL Interior standings with 57 points, with the Penticton Vees in the top spot with 73.
Next up for Salmon Arm: a couple of away games versus the Cranbrook Bucks, March 8 and 9. The ‘Backs will be back on home ice on March 15 to once again do battle with the Smoke Eaters.
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