A stellar outing from Jordan Fairlie wasn’t quite enough to save the season of the Prince George Spruce Kings.
Fairlie made 47 saves as the Salmon Arm Silverbacks outshot the Spruce Kings 49-40.
The Silverbacks won the best-of-seven series 4-0 to advance to the second round.
CJ Foley scored the game-winning goal at 15:14 of double overtime giving the Silverbacks a hard-fought 2-1 victory in front of 801 fans at the Kopar Memorial Arena Wednesday evening.
The play started when Hayden Stavroff got the inside track on Spruce Kings captain Colton Cameron, locating Ryan Gillespie who then found Foley fresh off the bench and uncovered.
Mathieu Bourgault opened the scoring for Salmon Arm at 3:25 of the first period as his snapshot down the far wing zipped past the shoulder of Fairlie for a 1-0 lead. Evan Fedele brought PG back to even terms seven minutes later as his rush through centre ice led to a screenshot that fooled netminder Matthew Tovell.
The game stayed tied for four consecutive periods prior to the Foley goal.
Both teams went a combined 0-for-4 on the power play, including P.G. going 0-for-3.
This marked the final Junior A hockey game for Jake Schneider, Jack Stockfish, Jordan Fairlie, Colton Cameron, Charlie Banquier, and John Herrington.
Ty Gagno is also slated to begin his college hockey career next season at Holy Cross despite having one year left of junior eligibility.
The Silverbacks will have to play the waiting game as to who their next opponent will be in the BCHL Interior Conference.
Even though the Penticton Vees swept the Trail Smoke Eaters – the Wenatchee Wild find themselves up 3-1 in their series against the Cranbrook Bucks. Wild forward Parker Murray has scored the team’s last eight goals.
In addition, the Vernon Vipers evened up their series against the West Kelowna Warriors at two games apiece following a 7-0 on Wednesday.
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