PHOTO: Cherie Morgan/Cherie Morgan Photography
PENTICTON, BC. – The Penticton Vees scored a pair of power play goals but it was not enough as they fell to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks by a 5-2 score on Wednesday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
The Vees were first to strike while on the game’s opening power play, finding the back of the net against the league’s best penalty killing group in the Silverbacks and came courtesy of a terrific passing play between the Nadeau’s and Luc Wilson as Bradly Nadeau capped off the play with his 11th goal of the season.
Josh Nadeau gathered the puck in the left face-off circle and made his way to the top of the circle before feeding a pass across to the top of the left face-off dot as Wilson made a quick pass down low to the blocker side of the net as Bradly Nadeau one-timed a shot off the right pad of Silverbacks netminder Owen Say at the 4:52 mark of the 1st period that pushed the Vees ahead by a 1-0 score.
The Silverbacks didn’t get much going before the Vees opened the scoring but strung some good shifts together in response and got the game on even terms at the 8:23 mark of the opening frame as Brandon Santa Juana used a quick stick to level the game at 1-1.
Tucker Hartmann took a shot from the right point that was redirected in the slot by Santa Juana, slipping a tip past the blocker side of Vees goaltender Carter Serhyenko at the 8:23 mark of the 1st period to get Salmon Arm on the scoresheet and even the score at 1-1 heading into the middle stanza.
Simon Tassy scored the first of his two second period markers at the 8:59 mark of the 2nd period with a power play goal to give Salmon Arm their first lead of the game. Michael Ladyman walked in from the right point and sent a shot to the net that was deflected and stopped by Serhyenko before Tassy batted the rebound through the legs of the Vees netminder to make it a 2-1 game.
Salmon Arm pushed their lead to two goals with under a minute and a half remaining in the middle period as Tassy buried his second goal of the period. After an miscalled icing, Tassy took the puck from a centre ice face-off and moved into the offensive zone, making his way into the middle of the ice and snapping a shot from the slot past the glove side of Serhyenko to give Salmon Arm a 3-1 lead heading into the 3rd period.
Mat Bourgault extended the Silverbacks lead to three goals with a marker coming at the 7:15 mark of the final period. Noah Serdachny outworked a Vees defender off the puck and centered to the front of the net where Bourgault slashed it past the blocker side of Serhyenko to give the Silverbacks a 4-1 advantage.
The lead was extended to four goals as Owen Beckner pushed the 5th Salmon Arm goal into the net with a shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle. The Silverbacks forward got to the puck and fought through a check before zipping a shot over the blocker shoulder of Serhyenko at the 14:50 mark of the 3rd to make it a 5-1 lead for Salmon Arm.
The Vees got one back late in the 3rd period as Josh Nadeau added to his team lead with his 21st goal of the season, taking a Casey McDonald pass and slipped a shot underneath of the glove of Say at the 18:19 mark of the 3rd period with the Vees second power play marker of the game to finish the scoring at 5-2 in favour of the Silverbacks.
Carter Serhyenko made 18 saves on 23 shots in his second loss of the season while Owen Say turned aside 30 of the 32 shots thrown his way for his 17th victory of the season.
FINAL SCORE: 5-2 Silverbacks
SHOTS ON GOAL: 32-23 Vees
3 STARS:
1) Simon Tassy (2-0-2)
2) Brandon Santa Juana (1-1-2)
3) Owen Say (30 saves on 32 shots)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Mason Poolman (0-0-0)
Attendance: 1,861
The Vees (21-5-0-2) get set for their first trip of the season south of the border to take on the Wenatchee Wild (9-11-4-1) on Saturday night. Puck drop is slated for 6:00 PM at the Town Toyota Center with the game being broadcast live on Bounce Radio 800 as well as streamed on BCHLTV.ca beginning with the pre-game show at 5:40 PM.
