Penticton, BC: Cassidy Bowes may feel 10 pounds lighter after having his hair cut off, signalling the end of his fundraising for children’s cancer research. The cut took place at the conclusion of a Penticton Vees (23-11-1-2) 7-2 thrashing of the West Kelowna Warriors (22-15-0-1) Friday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
James Miller opened the scoring 7:38 into the game, capitalizing on a Warriors turnover at the Penticton blue line and racing in on a breakaway before beating Connor Hopkins on the blocker side for his 16th of the year.
Just over two minutes later took a pass from Cole Shepard in the Warriors zone and skated down the middle of the ice before wiring a wrist shot into the top corner over Hopkins glove.
The Vees took a 2-0 lead into the intermission while outshooting the Warriors 17-6. The second started with some early pressure by West Kelowna, but the Vees weathered the storm and got right back on the attack.
Mason Snell let a slapshot go through traffic that beat a screened Hopkins four minutes into the period for his third of the year. A minute and a half later Massimo Rizzo redirected a rebound into the net, which was originally called no goal after the official said he kicked it in. After a brief conference between the officials, they ruled it a good goal.
The goal ended Hopkins night who was replaced by Brock Baier. Jack Lagerstrom welcomed Baier into the game by scoring a power-play goal, sneaking a wrist shot through his five hole.
Just 1:14 after Lagerstrom’s goal, Lukas Sillinger took a nifty drop feed from Ryan Sandelin as he skated across the Warriors blue line, allowing Sillinger to skate down main street and fire a wrist shot past Baier to make it 5-0.
West Kelowna got on the board with 1:15 to go in the period as Mike Hardman’s pass from the right circle went off Miller’s skate and into the net to make it 6-1 after two periods. The Warriors added another goal early in the third to cut it to 6-2, but Sillinger scored his second of the game on the power play to cap off the scoring for the night.
Following the game, Cassidy Bowes, long time season ticket holder Jon Race and Chris Woods had their hair cut after Bowes raised money for children’s cancer research. Combining the GoFundMe, cash donations and an anonymous donation after the hair cut, a grand total of $9,428.69 was raised.
Announced attendance was 2,910. The Vees head up to West Kelowna for the final game of 2018 against the Warriors to finish off the season series.
