Vees double down on Silverbacks to climb into Interior lead
Lukas Sillinger and Jay O’Brien drove the Penticton Vees back into sole possession of first place in the Interior Division.
Sillinger had an empty-net goal and four assists and O’Brien potted a goal and three helpers as the Vees doubled the Salmon Arm Silverbacks 6-3 on Friday at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Captain David Silye had a goal and an assist and Danny Weight, Evan McIntyre and Steve Holtz also connected as the Vees (19-5-1) moved two points ahead of the Silverbacks and the Trail Smoke Eaters atop the standings. Trail won 6-2 in Powell River for their 17th win in their last 20 games.
Nick Unruh, Jayden Price and William Poirier scored for the Silverbacks (18-6-1), who won the front end of the home-and-home 4-3 Wednesday in Salmon Arm.
Yaniv Perets made 20 saves – including several big ones in the third period – to earn his 11th win of the season.
Dylan Kruss, playing in the absence of standout starter Ethan Langenegger, had 21 stops for Salmon Arm.
The Silverbacks took a big crowd of 3,055 out of it in a hurry as Unruh connected on a rebound off the rush just 16 seconds in.
The Vees regrouped and took over late in the period with two goals in a span of 1:26.
After a Silverbacks turnover down low, Weight redirected a Liam Malmquist past into the open side to tie it at 15:06.
Silye found himself all alone in front of Kruss after a pass from Sillinger and neatly deked to the backhand before calmly tucking the puck home at 16:32.
The Vees forged ahead 3-1 on a power play at 7:17 of the second period with McIntyre ripping a low slapshot from the point past Kruss.
Price sliced the Vees lead to 3-2 on a power play at 10:04, but O’Brien got that one back at 12:29. Sillinger made a nifty play to pickpocket a defender and got the puck to O’Brien, who went to the backhand before hoisting the puck over Kruss.
But the Vees took another penalty late in the period and the Silverbacks capitalized at 18:50. Unruh fanned on a shot in the left circle, but the puck bounced fortuitously to Poirier in the right circle to drive past a helpless Perets.
The next goal was going to be a big one and the Vees got it at 12:01 of the third to make it 5-3. O’Brien got the puck to Holtz at the right point and his hard shot drifted over Kruss’s blocker, with Sillinger logging his fourth helper.
The Silverbacks got Kruss to the bench for an extra attacker with 1:30 left but Sillinger salted it away with an empty-netter with 12 seconds to go.
Silye, O’Brien and Sillinger were the three stars as the Vees launched Parents’ Weekend with a big win.
The Vees take on the Wenatchee Wild tonight at 6 p.m. at the SOEC.
RIVERMEN 3, VIPERS 2 (SO)
Kalen Szeto scored in the fifth round of a shootout as Langley beat visiting Vernon.
Dawson Holt and Matt Kowalski scored first-period goals for the Vipers (13-9-1-1).
Joseph Musa in the first and Matthew Hubbarde in the second period scored for Langley (11-13-0). Vernon outshot Langley 3830, including 5-1 in overtime.
Vernon takes on the league-best Coquitlam Express (20-5-0) tonight, while the West Kelowna Warriors visit the Prince George Spruce Kings.
Both games are 7 p.m. starts.