24-hours after beating the Vernon Vipers at home 4-2, the Penticton Vees head up the highway to face the West Kelowna Warriors in BCHL pre-season action; puck drop is 7 pm. Owen Sillinger, Grant Cruikshank and Griffin Mendel all scored in the first period of Tuesday’s win, and Taylor Ward sealed the win with an empty-net goal late in regulation.
That win kept the Vees perfect record intact in the pre-season, as they’re now 3-0 heading into tonight’s contest. West Kelowna hasn’t played since Saturday, when the picked up a 4-3 win in Salmon Arm. That completed the weekend sweep, as the night before the Tribe scored a 2-1 win on home ice.
These two teams opened their pre-season schedules last Wednesday with the Vees skating away with a 2-0 win at the SOEC. Tonight however will see West-K icing a more veteran line-up than they did last week. The Vees will have a few young faces in the line-up, including 16-year-olds Luke Bast (younger brother of Gabe) and Brendan Kim patrolling the blue-line once again. Up front the Vees will dress two 15-year-olds in Massimo Rizzo and Connor Bouchard.
Rizzo is back with the Vees and will play tonight, wearing number number 92. Rizzo was with the Vees during Training Camp and put up 60 goals and a whopping 137 points in Bantam last year with the Burnaby Winter Club.
Though exhibition, this is the Vees first trip to West Kelowna since last season’s Interior Division Final playoff series. The Vees’ season came to an end at Royal LePlace in game six and in a heart-breaking fashion, as a valiant comeback attempt come up one-goal short.
There’s no rest for the wicked, as after tonight the Vees return home Friday to start a weekend home-and-home set with the Trail Smoke Eaters. Penticton wraps-up its pre-season schedule Saturday at Cominco Arena.
Tonight’s game will be broadcast on Fasthockey pay-per-view with Warriors broadcaster Trevor Miller behind the mic. Go to www.fasthockey.com to stream the broadcast.
