Game Preview: Vees vs. Salmon Arm Silverbacks (Game One)
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Game Time: 7:00 pm PST
Location: South Okanagan Events Centre, Penticton
Radio: Bounce 800 AM
Webcast: Flo Hockey
| Season Series | Playoff Series |
| Dec. 8, Penticton 0 at Salmon Arm 1 | GM 1: May 3, Salmon Arm at Penticton, 7:00pm |
| Dec. 9, Salmon Arm 2 at Penticton 1 | GM 2: May 4, Salmon Arm at Penticton, 7:00pm |
| Dec. 30, Penticton 3 at Salmon Arm 4 | GM 3: May 6, Penticton at Salmon Arm, 7:00pm |
| Feb 2, Penticton 5 at Salmon Arm 2 | GM 4: May 8, Penticton at Salmon Arm, 7:00pm |
| Feb 19, Penticton 2 at Salmon Arm 3 (OT) | GM 5: May 10, Salmon Arm at Penticton, 7:00pm* |
| March 23, Salmon Arm 2 at Penticton 1 (SO) | GM 6: May 12, Penticton at Salmon Arm, 7:00pm* |
| GM 7: May 14, Salmon Arm at Penticton, 7:00pm* | |
| *If necessary |
Penticton Vees
President, GM & Head Coach: Fred Harbinson
Regular Season Record: GP 54 38-10-3-3, 1st in the Interior Conference
Playoff Record: 8-1
Last Game: 2-1 OT win vs. Vernon (Apr. 26)
Home: 5-0
Away: 3-1
GF: 27
GA: 12
Power Play: (4/23) 17.40%
Penalty Kill: (18/20) 90.00%
Scoring Leader: Callum Arnott (4-4-8)
After a five-game series win over the Vernon Vipers in the Interior Division Semi-Final, the Penticton Vees are primed and ready for what’s sure to be their toughest test of the season. They go from their oldest rival to one of their newest as they host the Salmon Arm Silverbacks in the Interior Division Final beginning tonight at the South Okanagan Events Centre. It’s a rematch of last year’s Division Final that saw Penticton eliminate Salmon Arm in five games to earn a spot in the Fred Page Cup Final.
“It’s an interesting one, right? They had our number a little bit, as we had one win in six games, but you look on the other side the goals for, goals against is equal at 12-12. That shows how tight it was. Lot of tight, one-goal games they found a way to push through. Now it’s our job to flip that script in the playoffs,” said Vees’ President, General Manager & Head Coach Fred Harbinson.
Penticton had their struggles with the Silverbacks during the 2023-24 regular season, winning only once in six games (1-3-1-1) in the season series. The Silverbacks were the team that ended the Vees’ SOEC winning streak as well on December 9th with a 2-1 win thanks to a late goal from forward JJ Monteiro in the third period. All but one game during the season series were decided by one goal, with the outlier being Penticton’s only win by a 5-2 count on February 2nd, in Salmon Arm.
Penticton will rely on their veterans to guide the way through the Interior Division Final, much like they did in the Semi-Final against the Vernon Vipers. Cal Arnott leads the team in scoring in the playoffs but as you look down the list of leading scorers, it’s littered with the names of all the veteran leaders that the Vees count on night in, night out. The likes of Thomas Pichette, Zack Stringer, Conyr Hellyer and Arnott are counted on to play big minutes in important situations for Penticton and have lived up to the billing through two rounds of the Rogers BCHL Playoffs.
The Vees enter the Interior Division Final in unfamiliar territory when it comes to special teams, with the script being flipped from the regular season. During the regular season Penticton boasted the league’s second best powerplay and 11th ranked penalty kill across the 17-team league. In the playoffs it’s been the opposite, as they currently carry the lowest powerplay percentage of any team remaining in the playoffs while owning the best penalty kill percentage at 90 percent.
Will the Vees continue to use the goaltending rotation that hasn’t failed them so far in these playoffs? Will Ingemann picked up the victory over Vernon in overtime to seal the series, making 14 saves in Game Five last Friday. Through two rounds of the playoffs, Will Ingemann and Andrew Ness have combined for a save percentage just over .930, while sporting a goals-against average of 1.25.
Defensively the Vees have made things easy for them, surrendering just 17 shots per game in their last series against Vernon. Penticton has conceded just 12 goals in 9 games in the postseason.
Salmon Arm Silverbacks
General Manager: Brooks Christensen
Head Coach: Tyler Shattock
Regular Season Record: GP 54 34-17-0-3, 3rd in the Interior Conference
Playoff Record: 8-3
Last Game: 6-2 win vs West Kelowna (Apr. 26)
Home: 4-1
Away: 4-2
GF: 39
GA: 21
Power Play: (6/34) 17.60%
Penalty Kill: (27/31) 87.1%
Scoring Leader: Cole Cooksey (7-6-13)
The Silverbacks must feel comfortable arriving to the SOEC for Game 1 on Thursday night. They had the better of the Vees for much of the regular season series, winning five of six contests and both games played at the SOEC.
Much of that due to goaltender Eli Pulver. The 20-year-old who’s committed to Minnesota State Mankato, went 5-1 against the Vees in six games during the regular season. He amassed a save percentage of .946 on over 200 shots faced against Penticton this season. Not just by the numbers, it was evident all season long that Pulver had a special type of motivation against Penticton, posting better numbers against one of the league’s best teams than he did against the rest (.924% total save percentage) of the field.
Coming off series wins over the Merritt Centennials in six games and the rival West Kelowna Warriors in five; the Silverbacks are doing more scoring than they are defending in recent times. They’ve scored the third most goals throughout the playoffs with 39 and carry a plus 18 goal differential into the Interior Division Final against the Vees. Cole Cooksey leads the way up front with 13 points (7-6-13), sitting fourth in BCHL Playoff scoring behind Micah Berger (Surrey), Trent Wilson (West Kelowna) and Hayden Stavroff (Alberni Valley).
Defenceman Ryan Philbrick (0-7-7) and Cole Longacre (1-5-6) are both in the top 10 in league scoring for defencemen. Salmon Arm has a deep, mobile defence core that generate offence off the rush.