By: Jim Elliot
Hockey fans at the Shaw Centre were treated to a high-scoring thriller as the Alberni Valley Bulldogs came to town to face the Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Jan. 26.
The Silverbacks started out at a disadvantage with a two minute delay of game penalty incurred during the warm-up served by Brandon Whistle. Just as Whistle was coming out of the box, Alberni Valley’s Michael Sacco snuck the puck past Kyle Dumba in net for the Silverbacks.
With the Silverbacks’ Max Wutzke in the box for tripping, Jackson Doucet scored on the power play after picking up a cross-ice pass that caught Dumba out of position.
The Silverbacks rallied in the second half of the opening period with a goal from team captain Grayson Constable and a power-play marker from akito Hirose to leave the game tied after 20.
Bad blood between the teams was evident in the opening period with a total of 14 penalty minutes and plaenty of trash talk after the whistle.
Doucet scored his second of the game in the opening minute of the second period. Alberni Valley forward Tyler Vanuden followed up with the fourth Bulldogs’ goal as Trevor Adams sat in the box serving a roughing penalty.
Goals from Tanner Campbell and Logan Mostat once again left the game deadlocked as it entered the final period.
Sacco restored the Bulldogs’ lead with another power play goal early in the third.
A pair of Silverbacks’ goals from Sol Seibel and Demetri Kambeitz gave the Silverbacks their first lead of the game with eight minutes left to play.
Sacco came through in the clutch for Alberni Valley tying the game back up at six to round out his hat trick; he went on to be named the game’s second star.
The game went into overtime. A tripping penalty charged to Luc Salem 56 seconds into the overtime period gave the Sivlerbacks ample chance to put the game away, but neither team was able to score so a second overtime period was needed.
Trevor Adams skated in unassisted to score 1:22 into the second overtime period wrapping up the Silverbacks’ fifth win in a row.
