The Salmon Arm Silverbacks pulled off a thrilling overtime victory against the visiting Prince George Spruce Kings in an afternoon game at the Shaw Centre on Sunday.
Going into the game the Spruce Kings were leading the mainland division while the Silverbacks were a dead-last seventh place in the interior.
The Silverbacks pounced on an early delay of game penalty charged to Prince George’s Tyson Slater to score 57 seconds after the opening puck drop off a snipe from Akito Hirose.
Dylan Anhorn evened the score before the five-minute mark, slipping the puck past Reid Cooper with an assist from Dustin Manz.
The Silverbacks did well keeping possession of the puck in the first period, pelting the Spruce Kings’ net with 14 shots compared to seven faced by Cooper at the far side of the ice.
The second period was scoreless and full of penalties. Both teams served eight penalty minutes each. The Silverbacks outshot Prince George once more 13-9.
Early in the final frame Hirose broke the tie with his second goal of the game on an unassisted dash to the net to pick up the marker.
Prince George tied the game near the halfway point of the third period and neither team could sink a game-winner in regulation so the game moved on to overtime.
Nick Unruh potted the unassisted game-winner 2:48 into the first overtime period wrapping up the Silverbacks’ second win of the weekend.
The Silverbacks will get a much-needed four day break after their three-game weekend before hitting the road to take on Powell River on Jan.12.
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