Pink suits the Penticton Vees well. Clad in pink jerseys for their annual Anti-Bullying Night, the Vees came back to down the Trail Smoke Eaters 5-2 Saturday, at the SOEC.
The Vees scored four unanswered goals, three in the third period, to send over 3,800 fans home happy. Scott Conway paced the attack, finishing with a game-high four points, two goals, as he padded his lead atop of the BCHL scoring race. Dante Fabbro and Easton Brodzinski also scored for the Vees, who won their seventh straight and 15th in their last 17 games.
Zach Driscoll got the win, again, against the Smokies, turning aside 17 of 19 shots, to win for the sixth time in as many games against the orange and black.
Connor Brown-Maloski scored both Trail goals, both on the power-play, as the visitors lost their 11th straight on the road.
It was a power-play clinic through the first two periods, as both teams combined for four power-play goals on as many chances in the first 40-minutes; each team bagging a pair.
Down 2-1 late in the second, the Vees used their number one ranked power-play to tie the game in the fleeting moments. Scott Conway alertly batted a clearing attempt out of the air, just inside the blue-line. The puck then settled for Fabbro, who bounced his point-shot off a Trail player and in with just three-seconds left on the clock.
Penticton rode that moment into the third and again Conway was in the thick of it. Tied 2-2, Conway took a pass out of the corner and popped a backhand over the goalie’s shoulder at 5:13. The Vees leading scorer wasn’t done there, as he added an insurance marker not even two-minutes later.
On the team’s third power-play, Fabbro let go a bomb from the blue-line that Conway got just enough of with his stick to get it by the Trail netminder at 7:07; his 53rd pulling him within one of the BCHL lead.
Easton Brodzinski added the finishing touches on the Vees’ 46th win with an empty-net goal inside the final 25-seconds.
It was a good road effort from the visitors, as the Smoke Eaters had two separate one-goal leads in the first two periods. Brown-Maloski opened the scoring late in the first on Trail’s first power-play at 16:22. Tyson Jost had an answer for that goal, scoring on the Vees’ first power-play at 18:15 on a great pass from Conway; his 37th.
Brown-Maloski was at it again in the second however, scoring another power-play to put the Smokies up 2-1, before Fabbro’s buzzer beater evened it up going into the third period.
Final Score: 5-2 Vees
Shots: 38-19 Vees
Power-Plays: Vees 3-3 Trail 2-3
Three Stars: 1) Dante Fabbro 2) Scott Conway 3) Bailey MacBurnie
Attendance: 3,806
After Saturday, Scott Conway has 53 goals and 110 points and sits five points ahead of Nanaimo’s Sheldon Rempal for first in the BCHL scoring race; he also extended his point streak to 18-games. Tyson Jost extended his point streak to 11 games, and has 10 points in his last four games. The Vees swept the seven-game season series against Trail.
