The Penticton Vees pre-season schedule takes them to Vernon tonight for a date with the Vipers at Kal-Tire Place; face-off is 7 pm. The Vees are coming off a 2-0 win last night at the SOEC over the West Kelowna Warriors in their exhibition curtain raiser. This is Vernon’s pre-season debut.
Though Wednesday’s game was a squad mixed with prospects and a few recruits, tonight is the first real look at what the Vees may look like this season. Tonight’s Vees’ roster will be feature most of the returning players and recruits from the off-season. Nic Jones, Ben Brar, Owen Sillinger, Taylor Ward, Desi Burgart, David Eccles and Griffin Mendel will all dress tonight. Gabe Bast will not play as he working back from last season’s lower-body injury.
Mat Robson, acquired in late July from the Toronto Patriots, will get the start between the pipes tonight. The 20-year-old was a redshirt freshman at Clarkson University but won the OJHL championship with Toronto two years ago.
In last night’s action, Desi Burgart and Turner Ripplinger scored second period goals for the Vees, and Nolan Hildebrand stopped 20-shots for the shutout in the Vees’ crease. Full game recap can be found here
This is obviously the first meeting between Penticton and Vernon since their first round Interior Division playoff series last March; the Vees won that in five games.
There will be an audio-only broadcast of tonight’s game and can be found at www.mixlr.com/penticton-vees. Fraser Rodgers will be behind the mic with a short pre-game show starting at 6:55 pm, puck-drop 7 pm.
