GAME PREVIEW: Vees Eye Weekend Sweep Hosting Silverbacks
The Penticton Vees look to make it back-to-back wins to begin the Okanagan Cup as they host the Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Saturday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
PENTICTON VEES OKANAGAN CUP SCHEDULE:
Friday, September 25th vs. Salmon Arm Silverbacks (7-0 Vees) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, September 26th vs. Salmon Arm Silverbacks (6:00 PM)
Friday, October 2nd vs. West Kelowna Warriors (6:00 PM)
Saturday, October 3rd @ West Kelowna Warriors (7:00 PM)
Wednesday, October 7th vs. Vernon Vipers (6:00 PM)
Saturday, October 10th @ Vernon Vipers (6:00 PM)
Friday, October 16th @ West Kelowna Warriors (7:00 PM)
Saturday, October 17th vs. West Kelowna Warriors (6:00 PM)
Friday, October 23rd vs. Salmon Arm Silverbacks (6:00 PM)
Saturday, October 24th @ Salmon Arm Silverbacks (6:00 PM)
Friday, November 6th @ Vernon Vipers (6:00 PM)
Saturday, November 7th vs. Vernon Vipers (6:00 PM)
Friday, November 13th Semi-Finals
Saturday, November 14th Finals
The Vees will look to build off of a strong offensive night to open their Okanagan Cup tournament, earning a 7-0 victory over the Silverbacks on Friday night at the SOEC. Returning forward Tristan Amonte tallied twice while newcomer Quinn Hutson also found the back of the net a pair of times. Devlin O’Brien, Jackson Niedermayer and Drew Elser each scored singles with Yaniv Perets turning aside each of the 20 shots he faced in his first start of the Okanagan Cup.
Okanagan Cup Leading Scorers:
Tristan Amonte (2-0-2)
Quinn Hutson (2-0-2)
Tyler Ho (0-2-2)
Luc Wilson (0-2-2)
Drew Elser (1-0-1)
Scoring early in the season has been somewhat of a normality for Norwell, Massachusetts’ own Tristan Amonte, who buried the opening goals of the game on Friday night to help the Vees to a dominating victory. The Boston University commit scored the opening goal of the 2019/20 regular season for Penticton in a 4-1 victory over the Trail Smoke Eaters on September 8th in the West Kootenays. Amonte tallied 15 goals during the regular campaign a season ago, including a pair of multi-goal games including the opener.
Scoring three times in two intrasquad games, forward Quinn Hutson had that success translate into the opening of the exhibition season with a pair of goals to help the Vees to a victory. Another Boston University commit, Hutson is no stranger to finding the back of the net, tallying 31 goals in 23 games with the North Jersey Avalanche in the AYHL a season ago and has seen some of that success translate into his Junior hockey career.
A 20-save shutout for returning netminder Yaniv Perets gave the Quinnipiac commit some confidence to begin the Okanagan Cup tournament as he will turn the net over to his 19-year-old goaltending partner in Kaeden Lane, who will make his first start of the tournament. The Burnaby, BC native was acquired from the Grande Prairie Storm of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, where he posted a 3.07 goals against average in 30 games during the 2019/20 campaign while playing in 44 games the season before and brings plenty of experience to the crease.
The Salmon Arm Silverbacks will look to bounce back after taking a 7-0 defeat at the hands of the Vees on Friday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Riley Kohonick turned aside 34 of the 41 shots he faced in the losing cause as the ‘Backs will look to provide him and the team with some offence to conclude the doubleheader.
2019/20 Silverbacks Regular Season Leading Scorers:
Akito Hirose (9-42-51)
Noah Wakeford (18-32-50)
Daniel Rybarik (31-18-49)
William Poirier (23-18-341
Nick Unruh (12-27-39)
The Silverbacks will be looking to create and generate more offensive chances than what they had on Friday night and a part of that will have to come from their returning players, including forward Simon Tassy, who had some of the best chances to score for Salmon Arm on Friday. The Montreal, Quebec native scored 10 goals while adding 7 assists for 17 points in his rookie season in the BC Hockey League and caught fire late in the season with his last 5 goals coming in his last 6 regular season games, including a hat-trick against the West Kelowna Warriors on February 12th.
Another player who generated some good offensive opportunities was forward Noah Serdachny, who was making his first appearance in a Silverbacks jersey. The 17-year-old is a Salmon Arm product while playing his minor hockey out of the Rink Academy based in Winnipeg. Serdachny put up impressive numbers with the Prep program, scoring 18 goals and 42 assists for 60 points in 36 games played while hockey runs deep in the family with his sister Danielle playing at Colgate University and Dad, Steve, appointed as the skating/skills coach of the Edmonton Oilers for many years.
The Vees and Silverbacks square off in the second game of a weekend doubleheader on Friday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Puck drop is slated for 6:00 PM and, with COVID-19 restrictions in place with no fans permitted to attend the games, tonight’s game will be streamed with a FREE audio broadcast at mixlr.com/pentictonvees as well as aired live on HockeyTV.com.