PHOTO: Cherie Morgan/Cherie Morgan Photography
PENTICTON, BC. – The Penticton Vees used a pair of goals from Tristan Amonte and Quinn Hutson to earn a dominating 7-0 victory over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks to open the Okanagan Cup on Friday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
The Vees and Silverbacks started tentatively in the opening game of the Okanagan Cup as both teams iced the puck early trying to get settled in. The game’s first shot didn’t take place until the four-minute mark of the opening period before the play started to open up and the Vees began to generate chances, resulting in the game’s opening goal.
Salmon Arm garnered the first power play of the contest but it was the Vees who turned that into offence. At the tail end of the man advantage, Tristan Amonte gathered a loose puck at centre ice and came in on a clear breakaway from the blue line, making a move from his forehand to his backhand that beat Silverback netminder Riley Kohonick over the glove shoulder at the 6:52 mark of the period to give Penticton a 1-0 advantage on the shorthanded marker.
Amonte helped give his squad a 2-0 advantage five minutes later at the 11:52 mark of the 1st period with a drive to the outside of the zone and sending the puck to the front of the net. Amonte had Matteo Costantini going to the goal but the puck glanced off the stick of a Silverbacks defender, resulting in Amonte’s second goal of the contest and a 2-0 Vees lead after 20 minutes of play.
Penticton began the 2nd frame in similar fashion to how they finished the opening period as they were buzzing inside of the offensive zone. 3:56 into the middle stanza, Quinn Hutson buried his first goal of the Okanagan Cup on a nifty backhand pass from Costantini below the goal line to vault the Vees ahead by a 3-0 margin early in the 2nd period.
The Vees capitalized in the final period with three goals as Jackson Niedermayer gave Penticton a 5-0 lead. Niedermayer buried a rebound on a Liam Malmquist slap shot that Niedermayer was able to find the puck in the bottom of left face-off circle and beat Kohonick low glove at the 6:42 mark to give the Vees a 5-0 advantage.
Hutson found the back of the net for his second goal of the night at the 15:26 mark of the final period on a breakaway. Luc Wilson chipped the puck ahead to the neutral zone and found Hutson as he beat the Salmon Arm defence and got to the net before making a move to his forehand and beating Kohonick over the blocker side to give Penticton a 6-0 lead.
Drew Elser capped off the scoring with a snap shot from the left face-off circle after collecting a rebound on an original shot that was blocked. Elser picked the corner over the glove side of Kohonick to finish off the scoring with 1:48 remaining in the game to give the Vees a 7-0 lead.
Yaniv Perets turned aside each of the 20 shots he faced in his 1st shutout of the Okanagan Cup while Riley Kohonick made 34 saves on 41 shots in his 1st loss of the Okanagan Cup.
FINAL SCORE: 7-0 Vees
SHOTS ON GOAL: 41-20 Vees
VEES PP: 1/3
VEES PK: 2/2
The Vees (1-0-0-0) look to build off a strong opening night performance with another matchup against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (0-1-0-0) at the South Okanagan Events Centre at 6:00 PM. The game is available with a FREE audio link at mixlr.com/pentictonvees as well as pay-per-view at HockeyTV.com.
