The Vees vexed the ‘Backs once again, knocking the gorillas out of playoff action. Salmon Arm suffered a 5-1 loss to the Penticton Vees in Game 4 of the BCHL conference semifinal, held Tuesday night at the Shaw Centre.
Salmon Arm’s single came late in the third frame by Ryan Schwalbe off of Brayden Sherbinin. The third period wasn’t necessarily Salmon Arm’s strongest, but it was when the two teams appeared most evenly matched.
The first period was a different story. Penticton lit up the board at 8:45 with a goal by John Siemer. In the second half of the frame, a five-minute penalty for kneeing to Salmon Arm’s Alex Gillies gave the Vees an opening they didn’t waste, with back-to-back power-play goals potted by Ryan Gropp and Sean Flannagan. A couple minutes later, Wade Murphy added another marker for the Vees, giving them a discouraging (in the eyes of attending home-team fans) 4-0 lead going into the second period.
The Vees outshot the SilverBacks 14-5 in the second period, but only Jedd Soleway found a hole in Salmon Arm netminder Adam Clark’s defence as his shot squeezed past the goalie.
Penticton goalie Chad Katunar, who finished with 25 saves, could only be beat when a centring pass redirected off of Schwalbe’s leg.
The SilverBacks credit the Vees for their skilled forwards, who lived up to their billing, the d-men, who blocked shots well throughout the series, and Katunar who “got hot at the right time.”
“In the BCHL Playoff bracket, this series goes down as sweep for the Vees, but astute SilverBacks fans know that Salmon Arm played some real strong hockey in Games 2&3, and that a bounce or two could have easily changed the complexion of the series, but it just wasn’t mean to be,” states the SilverBacks’ website.
-With files from the Penticton Western News.
