The Penticton Vees (44-6-1-0) are back home after a weekend sweep down on Vancouver Island and are hoping some home cooking will do them some good against their South Okanagan rivals. The Vees and West Kelowna Warriors (33-16-1-2) conclude their six-game season series tonight at the SOEC.
Tonight’s matchup pits the two hottest teams in the BCHL against one another, as the Vees have won five straight and 10 of their last 11, and the Warriors have won a league-best seven in a row and are undefeated in their last eight.
Penticton is 20-points ahead of the Tribe in the standings but their opponent hasn’t lost a game since January 22nd, picking up 15 of a possible 16 points in the last two weeks; West Kelowna is now seven points ahead of third place Salmon Arm. The Vees have only lost twice since the calendar has flipped over to 2016 and are a staggering 23-1-1-0 at home this season; 3-0 against the Warriors at the SOEC.
The peach city boys went down to the Island last weekend, coming from behind to beat Victoria and Alberni Valley, with third period rallies; those two games bookended a 6-1 drubbing of the Clippers. Penticton clinched the BCHL regular season championship in Port Alberni Saturday with their 3-2 win, locking up home-ice advantage for the first three rounds of the Fred Page Cup Playoffs. One Vee also hit a milestone of his own on the trip.
Scott Conway ended a 16-drought by becoming the 23rd player in franchise history to score 50-goals, when he reached the milestone last Thursday in Victoria. The last player in Penticton history to do that was Chuck Kobasew in the 1999-2000 season, when the team was known as the Panthers. Conway also hit the 100-point plateau, and was the first Vee to hit that mark since Beau Bennett and Denver Manderson both did in the 2009-10 season.
The Vees are getting some reinforcements on their blue-line as well, as David Eccles returns to the line-up after missing last weekend’s games with an upper-body injury. Desi Burgart is nearing a return and Gabe Bast is making progress for a late season return.
Anthony Brodeur will get the nod between the pipes after Zach Driscoll got the win in Port Alberni Saturday. Brodeur has won all three starts against West-K this season, posting a sparkling .965 save percentage in those games; he’s 25-1-1-0 on the year.
Though he hasn’t qualified for the BCHL stats page, the Warriors Matt Greenfield owns the league’s best goals-against average (1.88) and save percentage (.944) in his 13 games played; Greenfield is 9-3. The Warriors, after a game of musical chairs in their crease over the last two seasons, seem to have found their number one.
The Warriors still have their trademark firepower, as Jonathan Desbiens, Liam Blackburn and Kylar Hope are all inside the top 15 in league scoring. Desbiens leads the team with 74 points in 52 games, followed by Blackburn (67) and Hope (66). Desbiens has scored in seven straight and has four goals in five games against the Vees. Hope is riding a BCHL-best 12-game assist streak coming into tonight; the streak started back on January 12th.
Conway carries a 16-game point streak into tonight’s contest and Tyson Jost (8) and Nic Jones (6) have lengthy point streaks as well. Conway has the most points of any Vees against the Warriors, with five goals and nine points.
The Vees will honour Owen Sillinger before tonight’s game with the Elliot Row January Player of the Month award. Sillinger had seven goals and 20 points in 12 games in last month, helping the Vees clinch their fifth consecutive division title.
