Night 121

In Coquitlam at the Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (38-19-2-1) turned in their worst performance of the season with a 10-5 shellacking at the hands of the Coquitlam Express (22-28-1-9). Resting three healthy veterans with two more injured vets out and also giving their backup goalie his first BCHL start the Express scored two quick goals in the first period and continued the onslaught with four more tallies in both the second and third periods.

With a strong start to the second period the Silverbacks scored twice to get back within one goal only to have three forwards all go for a line change at the same time one minute later resulting in an odd man rush against and a turning point goal against to restore a Coquitlam multi-goal advantage.

Defensively the Apes were an abomination with seven of the season high ten goals against coming from wide open Express players in front of the 'Backs net.

Austin Carroll had a career game for the Express with four points and now has seven points in his last four games after only four points combined in his first 38 contests of the season.

Of note Salmon Arm went two-for-six on the man-advantage and finished the season with the BCHL's best powerplay at 28.4%.

With the loss the Silverbacks picked up three of a possible eight points on their roadtrip and finished 1-6-0-1 on the road against the Coastal Conference this season while going 7-1 against the Coastal teams at home.

Salmon Arm as the 3rd seed in the Interior Conference now turns their attention to the Merritt Centennials for the first round of the playoffs starting at home on Friday night. The Apes won all six games between the two teams during the regular season with two of the wins coming in overtime, another by one goal in regulation, two victories by two goals, and one win by a four-goal margin. Overall the 'Backs outscored the Cents 24-13.