February is off to a less-than-desirable start for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, who wound up on the losing end of two 5-2 tallies over the weekend.
After finishing January with a pair of wins in Prince George, the ‘Backs were back on home ice in Shaw Centre Friday, Feb. 2, to face off against the Penticton Vees.
The Vees were first on the board with a first-period power-play conversion scored near the halfway mark by Simon Meier. The frame ended with a last-minute marker potted by Salmon Arm’s Isaac Lambert, assisted by Nick Wellenreiter and Nathaniel Davis.
At 11:45 in the second frame, Meier scored a tie-breaker for the Vees, with teammate Cade Littler adding a goal less than a minute later. Seconds after that, Silverback Riley Ashe rippled the mesh, with assists by Maddux Martin and Cole Cooksey. The Vees had the final word in the frame with a late goal scored by Anselmo Rego.
Final goal of the evening was a third-period empty netter scored by Penticton’s Thomas Pinchette.
Eli Pulver had goaltending duty for Salmon Arm, stopping 27 shots on net.
Saturday night, the Silverbacks were at Kal Tire Place to do battle with the Vernon Vipers.
Vernon’s Payton Struck struck first with what would be the one and only goal of first period. A minute into the second frame, Noah Dorey added an unassisted marker for the Vipers. At 8:41, Marcus Broberg delivered the ‘Backs first goal of the night, assisted by Ryan Gillespie and Lambert. Salmon Arm’s second goal was a power-play conversion scored (after two more Penticton goals) in the latter half of the third period by JJ Monteiro, assisted by Ty Paisley.
The game ended with a last-minute empty netter scored by the Vipers Julian Facchinelli.
Pulver stopped 30 shots on net, while Vipers netminder Ethan David stopped 33 shots on net.
As of Feb. 5, the Silverbacks, with 50 points, were in third place in the BCHL’s Interior division, with the Vees in the top spot with 58 points, followed by the West Kelowna Warriors with 54 points. The Vipers were in fourth place with 45 points.
The Silverbacks are back on the ice when they play the Prince George Spruce Kings at Shaw Centre on Feb. 9, game time is 7 p.m.
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