Photo credit: Garrett James Photography
Salmon Arm Silverbacks – 6
Wenatchee Wild – 3
The Salmon Arm Silverbacks jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second period of Game 7 and it proved to be too much for the Wenatchee Wild to recover from as the home team skated to an eventual 6-3 win to advance to the second round of the BCHL Playoffs.
With a tight-checking first period winding down, Salmon Arm’s Mathieu Bourgault deflected home a point shot for the first goal of the game. That proved to be the first of three goals in just over three minutes as Isaac Lambert and Michael Ladyman piled on for the ‘Backs to make it 3-0 after one.
Nathan Mackie scored Salmon Arm’s fourth of the game midway through the second period and Daniel Panetta buried one on the power play shortly after to increase the lead to 5-0.
As was the case all series, Wenatchee did not go down without a fight. Cade Littler got them on the board late in the second and Parker Murray and Hunter Hastings got them to within two goals in the third, but it proved to be too steep a hill to climb and Panetta closed things out with an empty-netter in the final minutes.
Simon Tassy and Noah Serdachny had three assists each for Salmon Arm, while defenceman Mario Gasparini had three helpers for Wenatchee.
The Wild ended up outshooting the Silverbacks by a 38 to 24 margin, but Owen Say managed to make 35 saves to earn the win.
Salmon Arm will now play the West Kelowna Warriors in the second round.
