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.
Related: Silverbacks’ Matthew Verboon reflects on experience at World Juniors
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.
This weekend, the Silverbacks play two more games on home ice. Saturday, Jan. 12, the Silverbacks face the Powell River Kings, before the Nanaimo Clippers visit on Sunday, Jan. 13.