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Three-goal burst helps Vees take Silverbacks

The Penticton Vees overtook Salmon Arm with a comfortable 5-1 lead Saturday night
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The Penticton Vees (33-10-2-3) scored three goals in a 62-second span in the second period, leading them to a 5-1 win over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (22-24-4-1) Saturday night, ending the Silverbacks seven-game winning streak.

Taylor Ward opened the scoring after the Silverbacks turned the puck over at their own blue line. Massimo Rizzo chopped the puck to Cassidy Bowes and the Vees found themselves on a mini 2-on-1 rush. Bowes fed Ward the puck on the backdoor pass and Ward tapped in his own rebound 2:38 into the game.

Salmon Arm answered back just 35 seconds later. After the Vees got the puck to their own blue line, but not out, the puck was thrown towards the net and a drop feed ended up on Rhett Kingston’s stick in the slot. Kingston’s wrist shot beat Adam Scheel through the five hole to tie things up through the opening 20 minutes.

Halfway through the second period is when the Vees offence came to life. While on the power play, Jonny Tychonick was skating down the left wing wall and spotted Owen Sillinger at the backdoor. Sillinger dropped down to one knee to make sure he was able to get the puck into the net for his 25th of the year.

Just 14 seconds later, Jackson Keane fed the puck to James Miller at the right point who then moved to the slot before firing a slap shot past Reid Cooper’s blocker to make it 3-1.

Less than a minute later, Michael Campoli knocked a Salmon Arm centring feed out of midair onto the stick of Rizzo, who skated into the Salmon Arm zone. With Campoli heading to the net, Rizzo let a wrist shot go from the slot that beat Cooper blocker side to make it 4-1.

Before the period was up, Sillinger added a second power-play goal when Wyatt Sloboshan’s pass deflected to his stick in front of the goal.

While no goals were featured in the third period, the biggest moment of the game occurred in the final minutes. Kingston had the puck and was racing towards the Vees end down the left wing. After getting a step on Miller, Kingston cut to the net and ran into Campoli, and both players went flying into Scheel, who was shaken up and had to leave the game.

Campoli was given the only penalty on the play, and shortly after Kenny Johnson dropped the gloves with Demitri Kambeitz putting the Vees down two men for the remainder of the game. Nolan Hildebrand made all four stops to seal the 5-1 win for Penticton.

The Vees now get set for a big home and home series with the Trail Smoke Eaters beginning Wednesday night at Cominco Arena in Trail.