Vernon, BC: The Vernon Vipers scored unanswered goals, only to see Salmon Arm score 4 unanswered before Griffen Barr won in it overtime as the Vipers narrowly downed the Silverbacks 6-5 in overtime.
For the third straight game the opposition opened the scoring as Daniel Panetta scored his first of the season on a powerplay in the later stages of the period. Salmon Arm had a lot of jump in the opening 20 minutes and James Porter Jr. made a number of big saves to keep his team in it after 1 period.
The Vipers offense exploded in the second period around the midway mark as Nick Remissong, Cam MacDonald and Kjell Kjemhus all scored in a 2 minute and 43 second window to give the Vipers a 3-1 lead. Reagan Milburn would convert on a powerplay to make it 4-1 heading into the 3rd period.
Ryan Shostak seemed to put it out of reach with his second of the season early in the 3rd making it 5-1. The Silverbacks however had other plans and it was their powerplay that sparked the comeback. Noah Serdachny scored his first on the PP. Just under three minutes later Panetta added his second of the afternoon to make it 5-3. A misplay behind the Vipers goal made it 5-4 as Panetta scored again for his hat trick goal with 8 minutes left. They'd complete the comback in the final minute as Serdachny got his second of the season to make it 5-5.
In what was an entertaining overtime that saw goalposts and wild scrambles, it was Griffen Barr scoring his first BCHL goal to give his team a 6-5 win.
The Vipers are back in action Friday afternoon as they play the West Kelowna Warriors at 1pm.
