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Silverbacks special teams sink Millionaires

Certainly part of the game plan for the Quesnel Millionaires was to stay out of the penalty box as they faced the Salmon Arm Silverbacks Wednesday night.
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Spencer Graboski scored his 14th goal of the season Wednesday against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.

Certainly part of the game plan for the Quesnel Millionaires was to stay out of the penalty box as they faced the Salmon Arm Silverbacks Wednesday night.

The Silverbacks have the second best powerplay in the British Columbia Hockey League.

Unfortunately, the Mills, with a little help from referee Brandon Liefke, handed the Silverbacks four powerplay opportunities and their hosts seized the opportunity to collect three powerplay goals on their way to a 4-1 win.

The Silverbacks carried the play in the first two periods, outshooting the Mills 25-13 enroute to collecting four goals.

Down by four, the Mills had their chances in the third period when they turned the tables on the Silverbacks, firing 12 shots at netminder Kurt Williams as they applied pressure trying to erase a four-goal deficit.

Rigby Burgart and affiliated player Kenneth McKay were stopped on a 2-on-1 and Spencer Graboski, Chris Blessing and Michael Spring were all stymied from in close by Silverbacks netminder Kurt Williams in the first half of the period.

Graboski finally put the Mills on the scoreboard with a backhand shot 13 minutes into the third period as he completed a passing play with Shawn Mueller and Quin Buckellew.

For Graboski it was his team-leading 14th goal of the season.

A few minutes later Malcolm Gould couldn’t dent the twine on a feed from McKay in the slot, nor could Buckellew who had a couple of good chances from in close.

The Mills went 0-2 on the powerplay and were outshot 31-25 on the game. Bryton Udy, in goal for the Mills, made 27 saves.

The Mills, currently in seventh place, remain six points ahead of the last-place Prince George Spruce Kings with 14 games remaining in the regular season.

The Millionaires are back home for a pair of games against the sixth-place Merritt Centennials Friday at 7:30 p.m. and again Sunday at 5 p.m.