HEADER

Preview: Vees host Warriors for final time in 17-18

Penticton, BC: The Penticton Vees (21-5-1-2) and West Kelowna Warriors (17-13-1-0) meet six times during the 2017-18 season, with all of them coming before the Christmas break. Friday’s game sees the Warriors at the South Okanagan Events Centre for the final time.

The Vees won their 11th game in a row Wednesday, 5-1 over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. Despite outshooting Salmon Arm 14-4 over the first 20 minutes, the scoreboard read just 1-0 Penticton thanks to Ryan Sandelin’s sixth goal of the year.

Nearly six minutes into the second the Vees extended their lead on a power-play goal from Taylor Ward. Penticton would be the recipient of 10 power plays on the night, but Ward’s marker would be the lone man-advantage goal.

Salmon Arm found the back of the net for the only time while shorthanded. Trey Thomas was able to squeak a rebound over the goal line to cut the lead to 2-1 halfway through the period.

Before the second was up Cassidy Bowes extended the Vees lead by knocking in a feed from below the goal line by Grant Cruikshank.

Less than two minutes into the third Jackson Keane scored his first goal since returning from injury, walking down the slot off the rush and beating Kyle Dumba over the blocker.

Jared Nash rounded out the scoring for the Vees as Ethan McLaughlin took a shot from the left point that was deflected in by Nash for his eighth goal of the year. Adam Scheel finished with 22 saves in the win.

West Kelowna meanwhile has been off since last Saturday when they downed the Wenatchee Wild 4-3 in overtime. Despite dressing just 16 skaters, the Warriors were able to get the win thanks to a monstrous 45 save performance from Nik Amundrud.

The Vees hold a 3-1 record against West Kelowna so far this season, the most recent meeting coming just nine days ago in a 3-0 win.

Scheel had one of his strongest performances of the year that night as he recorded his second consecutive shutout, finishing with 33 saves. The offence came courtesy of Sandelin, Massimo Rizzo and Dakota Boutin.

Penticton and West Kelowna will finish off the season series next Friday when they meet at Royal LePage Place.

Friday’s game can be heard with Craig Beauchemin and Scott Austin on EZ Rock AM 800 beginning with the pre-game show at 6:40. It can also be heard online by clicking on this sentence or viewed on a pay-per-view basis at www.hockeytv.com.

Team Statistics

Leading Scorers

Penticton Vees

Owen Sillinger – 13 G 17 A 29 GP

Nicky Leivermann – 7 G 19 A 28 GP

Jonny Tychonick – 5 G 18 A 25 GP

West Kelowna Warriors

Jared Marino – 10 G 18 A 31 GP

Chase Dubois – 11 G13 A 29 GP

Michal Ryan – 3 G 18 A 31 GP

Special Teams

Penticton Vees

Power play – 22.0% (2nd in BCHL)

Penalty kill – 89.8% (1st in BCHL)

West Kelowna Warriors

Power play – 20.6% (8th in BCHL)

Penalty kill – 83.0% (6th in BCHL)

Season Series

September 29, 2017 – Vees 2 vs Warriors 1 Boxscore

November 3, 2017 – Vees 3 @ Warriors 4 Boxscore

November 17, 2017 – Vees 11 @ Warriors 3 Boxscore

November 29, 2017 – Vees 3 vs Warriors 0 Boxscore 

December 8, 2017 – Vees vs Warriors

December 15, 2017 – Vees @ Warriors