Interior Division Vipers-Silverbacks Playoff Preview:

This is posted on the BCHL website:

Interior Division playoff preview

February 27, 2019

No. 4 Vernon Vipers vs. No. 5 Salmon Arm Silverbacks

Regular season head-to-head: (6 games)

Salmon Arm won five of the six meetings, including two in overtime and one in a shootout.

Of note:

The Vipers allowed the third-fewest goals in the BCHL and will rely heavily on goaltender Aidan Porter who finished in the top-five in goals-against average (2.59) and top-10 in save percentage (.908). He also tied for the second-most shutouts with four. As they did in the regular season, Vernon will try to score by committee as they had four different players with 40 points or more. Matt Kowalski led the team in scoring with 43 points and had 30 in 35 games after being acquired from West Kelowna.

Matthew Verboon leads the way offensively for the Silverbacks. After a strong start to the year, he earned a spot with Team Switzerland at the 2019 World Junior Championships, but he’s been even better since returning, totaling 29 points in Salmon Arm’s final 19 games. The Silverbacks are hoping to turn things around after losing four straight to finish the season. Despite the losing streak, they still managed to hold of West Kelowna, finishing one point ahead of them for fifth place in the division.

Final word:

Even though Salmon Arm took five of the six matchups in the regular season, this series is still too close to call. Four of the six meetings were one-goal games, including two in overtime and one in the shootout and we would expect the same in this series.