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Preview: Vees welcome Grizzlies for lone time this season

Photo Credit: Kasey Eriksen

Penticton, BC: The Penticton Vees (7-0-0-1) remained unbeaten after a late come-from-behind win over the Merritt Centennials last night, but have less than 24 hours to enjoy the win as they welcome the Victoria Grizzlies (7-4-0-0) to the South Okanagan Events Centre at 6:00 p.m.

Last night, the Vees were trailing 2-0 against Merritt and facing a goaltender who appeared to be in the zone. Jacob Berger was standing on his head through 55 minutes of play, making 39 saves as the Centennials were looking to hand the Vees their first loss of the season.

Jonny Tychonick had other ideas. After cutting it to 2-1 with his second of the year off a deflected slap shot from the left point, Tychonick scored again on the power play with just 2:26 left in regulation to send the game to overtime.

Just over a minute into the extra frame, Grant Cruikshank ended the game with a shot into the top corner from the right face-off circle to complete the comeback. The Grizzlies meanwhile opened up one of their longest road trips of the season with a 5-4 loss to the Trail Smoke Eaters last night.

Victoria had four different goal scorers last night, but were outshot 39-22 in the loss. Spencer McLean’s goal just 58 seconds into the third period broke a 4-4 tie and stood up as the winner. During a scuffle after the game, Grizzlies captain Lucas Clark was given a game misconduct penalty and will not be able to play tonight.

In the season series between the two teams last year, both games went to overtime with the home team winning each time. The game against Victoria at home was the final home game of the regular season for the Vees, and James Miller scored the winner 3:34 into overtime.

Tonight’s broadcast can be heard with Craig Beauchemin and Scott Austin on EZ Rock AM 800 with the pre-game show beginning at 5:40 p.m, listened to online by clicking on this sentence or by watching live at www.hockeytv.com.

Team statistics

Leading scorers

Penticton Vees

Owen Sillinger – 4 G 4 A 8 GP

Nicky Leivermann – 2 G 5 A 7 GP

Jonny Tychonick  – 3 G 3 A 8 GP

Victoria Grizzlies

Alex Newhook – 2 G 12 A 11 GP

Lucas Clark – 2 G 8 A 10 GP

Justin Michaelian – 7 G 2 A 11 GP

Special Teams

Power play

Penticton Vees – 21.7% (T-5th in BCHL)

Victoria Grizzlies – 19.6% (10th in BCHL)

Penalty Kill 

Penticton Vees – 90.9% (T-1st in BCHL)

Victoria Grizzlies – 81.1% (10th in BCHL)