The Cranbrook Bucks and the Salmon Arm Silverbacks faced off Thursday night. March 3, in their last meeting of the regular season. The home team prevailed over the powerful Silverbacks 2-1 with an overtime victory in a fast-paced, hard-working, high-shooting game.
The first period saw a lot of good rushes and chances for the Bucks, but Salmon Arm D-man Jake Lammens put one past the Bucks netminder Nathan Airey at the six minute mark, with traffic in front of the net, to give the Silverbacks a 1-0 lead. But both goalies came up strong with play in front of their net — Airey at the one end, Owen Say for Salmon Arm. First period shots were 11-10 in favour of the Bucks.
The two teams fought on in the second period, with the fast-paced back-and-forth, but scoreless until the 15th minute, when Cranbrook’s Tyson Dyck netted his 27th of the season — a power play goal, with the Silverbacks’ Matthieu Bourgault in the box for interference.
Cranbrook outshot Salmon Arm 17 to 9 in the second, but Owen Say kept them all out.
The pace settled down a bit in the third, and so to overtime. Tyson Dyck ended it early, just over a minute in, putting it past Say off a pass from Kellan Hjartarson.
The Bucks ended up outshooting their opponents, as they seem wont to do, 36-30. It was a relatively penalty-free game — just three in total. The Bucks went 1 for 2, the Silverbacks 0 for 1 on the power play.
Salmon Arm, with the loss, are at 33-8-4-1, in second place in the Interior Conference, just behind Penticton.
The Bucks, who have clinched their playoff spot, hang on to fifth place in the Interior Conference of the BCHL, at 24-18-2-2.
With the win, Cranbrook beats Salmon Arm in their season series, 4 games to 1.
The announced attendance at Western Financial Place in Cranbrook Thursday was 2,057.
The Herd now gets the day off, before heading to Wenatchee, Washington, to face the Wild in a double-header Saturday and Sunday. The Silverbacks are in Merritt Saturday to face the Centennials.
