PHOTO: Cherie Morgan/Cherie Morgan Photography
PENTICTON, B.C. – The Penticton Vees used a five-point night from Lukas Sillinger and a four-point affair from Jay O’Brien to help them to a 6-3 victory over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Friday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Scoring didn’t take long to get going in the game as just 16 seconds into the contest, Salmon Arm jumped ahead and opened the scoring. William Poirier chased after the puck in the left-wing corner and centered a pass for Coalson Wolford, who beat Vees goaltender Yaniv Perets right off the opening face-off and the Silverbacks took an early one-goal lead.
The Vees answered with a strong opening period, getting plenty of pressure inside the Salmon Arm zone and were able to tie the game at the 15:06 mark off a great pass from Liam Malmquist. The Vees forward spotted Danny Weight cruising in from the blocker side as he sent a pass across the slot where Weight beat Silverbacks goaltender Dylan Kruss on the blocker side for his 12th goal of the season and a 1-1 tie.
Just 1:26 later, Penticton took their first lead of the game after a strong play at the blue line. The combination of Jay O’Brien and Lukas Sillinger were able to hold the puck inside of the offensive zone at the left point as Sillinger sent a pass to the left face-off circle where David Silye collected and made a move from his forehand to his backhand to beat Kruss on the blocker side for his 8th goal of the season and a 2-1 Vees advantage at the 16:32 mark.
The Vees power play helped Penticton to their first two-goal lead of the game at the 7:17 mark of the 2nd period. Silye sent a pass across the ice to the left point where Evan McIntyre fired a slap shot through Kruss for his 5th goal of the season and extended the Vees advantage to 3-1.
Salmon Arm worked their way back to a one-goal game just under three minutes later on a power play of their own. Antonio Andreozzi worked his way down the middle of the ice and took a shot that was blocked but the puck fortuitously found the stick of Jayden Price, who wristed in a shot from the slot that cut the Vees lead to a goal at the 12:29 mark of the 2nd period.
Just over two minutes after that tally, the Vees were quick to restore their two-goal lead coming off the stick of O’Brien. Sillinger made the play down low, stripping a Salmon Arm defender of the puck and playing down low for O’Brien, who went to his back hand before stuffing the puck in on the blocker side of Kruss for his 15th goal of the season and a 4-2 Vees lead.
Not much was given up by Penticton in the game’s final period, with Salmon Arm not seeing much inside of the offensive zone and the Vees, once again, would extend their lead by a pair of goals at the 12:01 mark of the final period with a point shot through traffic.
Steve Holtz let a shot go from the left point that zipped into the top corner of the net, over the blocker side of Kruss for his 4th goal of the season and brought the Vees lead back to two goals and a 5-3 advantage in the game’s final 10 minutes of play.
Sillinger capped off his incredible night, picking up his 5th point of the hockey game with an empty net goal coming with 13 seconds remaining to help the Vees to a 6-3 victory. Yaniv Perets stopped 20 of the 23 shots he faced in his 11th win of the season between the pipes while Dylan Kruss turned aside 21 of the 26 shots thrown his way in his 7th loss of the season.
FINAL SCORE: 6-3 Vees
SHOTS ON GOAL: 27-23 Vees
VEES PP: 1/3
VEES PK: 3/5
3 STARS:
1) David Silye (1-1-2)
2) Jay O’Brien (1-3-4)
3) Lukas Sillinger (1-4-5)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Darwin Lakoduk (0-0-0)
Attendance: 3,055
The Vees (19-5-1-0) conclude their weekend on home ice with their third game in eight days against the Wenatchee Wild (11-10-1-1) on Saturday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Puck drop from the SOEC is slated for 6:00 PM with tickets available at the SOEC Box Office as well as online at ValleyFirstTix.com.
