Penticton, BC: The Penticton Vees (21-10-1-2) survived a penalty in overtime to take down the Trail Smoke Eaters (12-17-5-3) 2-1 in a shootout Friday night.
The game was scoreless after one period of play with the shots 9-8 in favour of the Smoke Eaters. Both teams had quality chances on net but the goaltenders on either side stood tall.
Trail ran into penalty trouble in the second, first getting called for roughing after the whistle and then a too many men on the ice penalty less than a minute later, giving the Vees a lengthy 5-on-3 power play.
In the dying seconds of the two-man advantage, Ryan Sandelin took the puck from the goal line and charged towards the front of the net, creating a mad scramble in the crease. After the puck was swept away from the goal line once, Sandelin was able to jam is past Adam Marcoux for his 23rd of the season to give the Vees a 1-0 lead.
With that score holding into the third, the Smoke Eaters wasted no time tying the game. Just over two minutes in, Carter Jones stepped around a hit just inside the Vees line off the rush and was able to fire a shot that snuck under the glove arm of Jack LaFontaine to tie the game.
The Smoke Eaters took two goalie interference penalties in the third period, the second one coming with just a minute left, and resulted in Max Kryski being ejected from the game and given a one game suspension due to taking the second goalie interference penalty of the night.
While the Vees had numerous grade A scoring chances on the power play to start overtime, they weren’t able to win the game. Just 1:19 after the penalty expired, it was the Vees turn to be shorthanded as Andre Ghantous was called for interference.
The Vees killed off the penalty, sending the game to a shootout, the fourth one of the season for Penticton. After the first three shooters of each team were stopped, the fourth for both teams scored as Sandelin and Owen Ozar answered for Trail.
After the next round of shooters were turned aside, Jackson Niedermayer ripped a shot into the top corner over Marcoux’s blocker to give the Vees a chance to win, and LaFontaine answered the bell by making an impressive glove stop on Tyler Ghirardosi to give the Vees in win.
The two teams will now face-off at Cominco Arena Saturday night at 7:00 to finish the home-and-home series. Announced attendance was 2,902.
