The Penticton Vees (9-2-0-0) continue on a four-game home stand and play their final game against a Vancouver Island-based team this season as they host the Victoria Grizzlies (8-5-0-0) on Saturday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
2021/22 REGULAR SEASON VS. VCTORIA
Saturday, November 13th @ South Okanagan Events Centre (6:00 PM)
The Vees come into Saturday night’s tilt against the Grizzlies looking to make it back-to-back wins to open a four-game home stand after earning a 2-1 overtime victory over the Alberni Valley Bulldogs on Wednesday night at the SOEC. Josh Nadeau scored a pair of power play goals in the game, including the overtime winner with just 23 seconds remaining, to help the Vees to the win. Kaeden Lane made 17 saves on 18 shots in his 6th win of the season.
2019/20 was the last time these two teams played a regular season series against one another with Penticton coming out on top in both of the contests. The Vees won a 4-1 outcome over the Grizzlies at The Q Centre in early November before they returned home after the Christmas break and earned an 8-4 triumph over Victoria in early January at the SOEC.
Vees Leading Scorers:
Bradley Nadeau (9-6-15)
Josh Nadeau (8-6-14)
Luc Wilson (8-6-14)
Fin Williams (3-10-13)
Brett Moravec (2-8-10)
A pair of goals on the man advantage in Wednesday night’s win for the Vees was all that was needed and came from 18-year-old forward Josh Nadeau, who improved his season total of markers to 8 on the campaign. The University of Maine commit has points in three of his last four games, all of which are multi-point affairs. Nadeau has scored 4 goals and added 3 assists for 7 points over that stretch while three of his four markers in that time have been on the power play.
With Nadeau’s two contributions on Wednesday night, that power play for the Vees has been clicking and finding plenty of success, scoring in their 8th straight game while up a man. The Penticton power play now sits in 5th place in the BC Hockey League, operating at 25% on the season with 12 goals scored while on the power play. The Vees sit tied for 6th in power play goals for on the season with Nadeau and Luc Wilson leading the way with 3 PPGs each.
Colin Purcell will get the nod in goal for the Vees on Saturday night and the 19-yeard old netminder is coming off of his best start of the season. The Shaker Heights. Ohio native made 35 saves on 38 shots in his 1st loss of the season one week ago in Duncan against the Cowichan Valley Capitals. The University of Massachusetts-Amherst commit comes into Saturday night’s matchup with the 2nd best goals against average in the league at 2.08 as well as the BCHL’s 8th best save percentage at .913.
The Victoria Grizzlies make their way into Saturday night on the second of a three-game road trip in which they kicked off with a 3-0 shutout loss to the Chilliwack Chiefs on Friday night at the Chilliwack Coliseum. Friday’s shutout defeat in Chilliwack was the first blanking of the season for the Grizzlies while Kyle Kelsey was a big reason why the game wasn’t out of reach in the Victoria crease, turning aside 37 of the 40 shots thrown his way.
Grizzlies Leading Scorers:
Connor Eddy (7-14-21)
Matthew Wood (11-6-17)
Clark Hiebert (4-10-14)
Ellis Rickwood (3-9-12)
Kalen Szeto (5-5-10)
The Grizzlies sit second in the Coastal Conference in terms of goal scoring, having potted 48 goals this season and have one of the league’s leading scorers in Connor Eddy around to do a lot of damage. The University of Northern Michigan commit comes into the game tied for the BCHL lead in points with 21 in 13 games played as well as being tied for the league lead in assists with 14. The Victoria, BC native has scored points in 8 of his 13 games played this season while he has generated multi-point performances in 6 of those contests including a five-point performance in mid-October against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
16-year-old forward Matthew Wood has had a terrific start to his rookie season but will not be available for tonight’s game against the Vees as he is serving the final game of his five-game suspension received on October 30th against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. Wood currently is tied for the league lead in goals with 11 and has multi-point games in four of his seven games with a marker.
The Vees and Grizzlies meet for the one and only time in their season series on Saturday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre for a 6:00 PM face-off. The Vees will be honouring the Indigenous community and Sqilx’w people with Orange Shirt Night as fans are encouraged to wear orange as part of the special night. Tickets are available for purchase online at valleyfirsttix.com as well as at the SOEC Box Office. The game will also be available live on Bounce Radio 800 and streamed on BCHLTV.ca.
