As the calendar flipped over to October last week, Salmon Arm SilverBacks fans were still waiting for a home-ice win. The best they’d managed at Sunwave Centre was a 5-5 tie with the Trail Smoke Eaters Sept. 29. Each of their three victories heading into last weekend had come on the road.

Finally, on Friday night Tony Ierfino and Mark Zengerle helped serve up some of that home cooking the Gorilla faithful were hungry for. Salmon Arm derailed the Burnaby Express 7-2 getting 39 saves from Ierfino and a whopping six points, including four assists, from Zengerle.

The teams traded scoring rallies as Salmon Arm found the net in the first and third periods with Burnaby netting both their goals in the second.

The SilverBacks took advantage of a misconduct penalty assessed to Dylan Herold and the ensuing seven-minute power play to build a 3-0 lead. Zengerle scored twice and assisted on the other. The slick Rochester, N.Y. native now sits second in league scoring with 26 points through 10 games.

Up a goal heading into the third, Zengerle added helpers on two goals by Corey Chakeen and another by David Killip. Devin Gannon provided the exclamation point with an unassisted empty-netter with Salmon Arm shorthanded.

“It’s nice to get that first home win out of the way,” said ‘Backs head coach Matt Hughes. “It’s probably a couple of weeks too late but it’s good for the guys to get it.”

Ierfino, who earned the first star nod despite Zengerle’s offensive barrage, said he sensed the home crowd’s hankering for victory.

“I think they were getting a little restless with us. It’s good for us to get it out of the way, get rid of the jitters and keep going with it.”

The netminder said it was easy to get into a rhythm in the game with lots of pucks coming his way after the long power play ended.

“I’d rather a 50-shot game than a 20-shot game any night,” said the Montreal native. “It’s a lot easier to get in a groove when you’re busy like that.”

There were still a few too many good chances surrendered for Hughes’ liking but Ierfino saved the day.

“(We gave up) a lot more than we’d like to, but he was there for us and he did his job. He gave us a chance and made some really good saves.”

The loss was Burnaby’s first in regulation time this season.

In Merritt for a Saturday showdown with the Centennials, Salmon Arm again got scoring heroics from Zengerle, who made it a 10-point weekend with two goals and two assists in a 7-3 win.

Salmon Arm led 5-0 in the second period when the Cents threw a bit of a scare into them by reeling off three straight goals to get to within two. Hughes said his team sat back briefly and it cost them but was pleased with the way they answered in the third, scoring twice more to ice it.

“They had a couple of bounces that resulted in goals and we kind of relaxed for about five minutes,” said Hughes. “We responded in the third and it just showed the maturation of the group.”

Salmon Arm’s power play was deadly during the weekend sweep scoring six times in 15 chances. There was also improvement in the penalty department as Salmon Arm took fewer lazy penalties, according to Hughes.

“There was a couple (bad penalties) on Friday but not as many as there has been. On Saturday we competed really hard. I don’t think there was a bad penalty that game.”

Salmon Arm hosts the Alberni Valley Bulldogs Saturday at 7 p.m. and entertain former ’Back Zac Rasmussen and the Prince George Spruce Kings Sunday at 3 p.m.