Salmon Arm, BC: The Penticton Vees (2-0-0-0) scored five-unanswered goals in the first period and held off a push back by the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (0-3-0-0) en route to a 6-2 win Friday night.
Just like he did in Merritt a week before, Owen Sillinger opened the scoring for the Vees. After a centring feed by Luke Reid from the right-wing wall, Sillinger dug the puck out of some skates before spinning a sliding a shot along the ice that beat Nic Tallarico just 2:06 into the game.
Sillinger was at it again six minutes later. Just moments after a power play had expired, Jonny Tychonick feathered a back-door pass from the right circle onto the stick of Sillinger who tapped home is second of the game.
The Vees power play was clicking in Salmon Arm, and it was Joe Leahy who got the first man-advantage marker. After taking a pass from Tychonick, Leahy skated to the right face-off circle and fired a wrist shot past a screened Tallarico for his first goal of the season.
Ryan Sandelin found the back of the net for the first time in his career a few minutes later. Leahy fired a bullet pass from the left point to the goal line for Jackson Keane. Keane quickly chipped the puck to the front of the net where Sandelin was able to shovel the puck past Tallarico for the power-play goal.
Just seven seconds later, Lukas Sillinger jumped up off the face-off and found the puck in the Salmon Arm end. Sillinger had a step on the defender and took a step to the middle of the ice before firing a shot past Tallarico’s blocker to make it 5-0 and prompt a goalie change. Bo Didur came in and played the rest of the game.
In the second the Silverbacks pushed back in a big way. Controlling the play for seemingly the first 15 minutes of the frame, Salmon Arm got goals from Josh Latta and Akito Hirose to cut the Vees lead to 5-2 after 40 minutes.
No pucks found the back of the net again until the final minute of the game. Luke Reid spotted Jared Nash behind the defence and gave him the puck up the middle. Nash came in on Didur and got the Salmon Arm goaltender to go down on his stomach before sliding the puck along the ice to make it 6-2 with just 15 seconds left in the game. It was the third power-play goal of the game for Penticton.
The Vees now have another week off before the BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack. Penticton will face-off against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (0-2-0-0) Friday at 4:00 p.m., before a rematch of last year’s Fred Page Cup final against the Chilliwack Chiefs Saturday at 7:00.
