Salmon Arm, BC: The Penticton Vees (39-12-2-3) inched their way closer to a Presidents Trophy with an 8-1 drubbing of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (23-27-3-1) Wednesday night. The Vees now need only a single point, or a tie between Vernon and Wenatchee Friday, to clinch first in the BCHL.
Wyatt Sloboshan opened the scoring, taking a cross-ice feed from Chris Klack and beating Kyle Dumba under the blocker from inside the left circle 8:29 into the game.
Salmon Arm got themselves in penalty trouble late in the period and Penticton made them pay. First it was Owen Sillinger who redirected a perfect slap pass from Jonny Tychonick for his 32nd.
Taylor Ward then jumped on a rebound off the end wall after Sillinger’s drive from the slot missed, but bounced off the back wall for Ward to shovel in past Dumba for his 20th of the year.
Nearly six minutes into the second, Cassidy Bowes sent a bank feed off the right wing boards for Dakota Boutin who was behind the defenceman. Boutin skated into the right circle before firing a wrist shot under Dumba’s blocker to make it 4-0.
Just 33 seconds later, Michael Campoli took a shot from the left point that was deflected in front by Ward and through Dumba’s legs to make it 5-0. The goal ended Dumba’s night as he was replaced by Reid Cooper.
Jared Nash would join the office minutes after Cooper took the net, scoring a similar goal to Sillinger as he jammed in his 12th of the year off a bounce from the end wall.
Salmon Arm got their only goal of the game with two and a half minutes remaining in the second after a turnover behind the Vees net. Noah Wakeford stole the puck from James Miller and threw it to the slot for Rhett Kingston before he wired it into the top corner over Adam Scheel’s glove.
Just over a minute later Penticton answered as Sloboshan redirected his eighth goal of the year to make it 7-1 Penticton after 40 minutes.
Halfway through the third period the Vees elected to change goaltenders as Nolan Hildebrand took over in the crease. He would only face one shot in his 9:56 of game action.
Bowes rounded out the scoring in the game by finishing off a nice cross crease pass from Campoli as the Vees went 3-for-8 on the power play.
Silverbacks defenceman Sol Seibel was ejected from the game for a major blow to the head penalty on Marcus Mitchell with a little over two minutes remaining in the game.
With the win Penticton is now four points ahead of Vernon and Wenatchee with two games remaining for each team. With both of the other teams holding the tie breaker against Penticton, the Vees need just one point from either of their final two games, or a tie in the head to head matchup between Vernon and Wenatchee on Friday to lock up first place in the BCHL.
