PHOTO: Cherie Morgan/Cherie Morgan Photography
PENTICTON, B.C. – The Penticton Vees collected their 18th win of their 20-game regular season on Sunday night with a 3-1 season-ending victory over the Cranbrook Bucks at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
The Vees were all over the puck inside the offensive zone to begin the game, throwing plenty of rubber on the Bucks goal and netminder Jay Thomson, who was terrific in the game to keep Cranbrook at a 0-0 score before Penticton was able to break the ice in the opening period at the 10:44 mark of the 1st period.
Ryan Upson made a fantastic pass from below the goal line, feeding a pass to the slot where Stefano Bottini gathered the puck in the slot and rifled a shot over the glove side shoulder of Thomson for his 4th goal of the season for a 1-0 lead just after the media timeout occurred in the opening frame.
Just 28 seconds after that, Jacob Quillan gave the Vees a 2-0 lead at the 11:12 mark of the opening period as the Penticton forward scored in his sixth straight game to conclude the season. Ben Wozney threw a shot on from the left point and had his shot redirected in the slot past the glove side of Thomson for his 13th goal of the season and a two-goal advantage.
Penticton finished the period with a 16-3 shot advantage as they held the edge in play inside of the offensive zone and continued their pressure into the 2nd period and early in the frame, Tristan Amonte added to the advantage and gave the Vees a 3-0 lead just over a minute into the period.
Amonte’s goal came on the Vees second power play of the game as Wozney got a pass from Luc Wilson and sent a shot to the net that was swept through the legs of Thomson by Amonte for his 6th goal of the season at the 1:38 mark of the middle stanza to push the Vees ahead by a 3-0 marker.
The Bucks got themselves on the scoreboard with their sixth shot on goal in the game as Quaid Anderson had a Noah Leibl pass go off of his right skate as he banked it past the blocker side of Vees goaltender Kaeden Lane at the 6:56 mark of the middle stanza to cut the Vees lead to 3-1.
The Vees once again were heavily involved in the offensive end in the 2nd period as well as they outshot the Bucks by a 15-4 margin in the middle stanza and 31-7 after 40 minutes of play heading into the 3rd period of action.
The Bucks began to compile pressure in the Vees zone and ended up outshooting the Vees by a 11-9 margin in the final period of play and came with lots of pressure in the final two minutes of the game but Lane and the Vees held strong to keep the two-goal lead in place and earned a 3-1 victory to conclude the season and claim the BCHL’s top spot.
Kaeden Lane turned aside 17 of the 18 shots he faced in his 15th win of the season while Jay Thomson stopped 37 of the 40 shots thrown his way in his 5th loss of the campaign.
FINAL SCORE: 3-1 Vees
SHOTS ON GOAL: 40-18 Vees
VEES PP: 1/5
VEES PK: 0/0
3 STARS:
1) Tristan Amonte (1-0-1)
2) Ryan Upson (0-1-1)
3) Jay Thomson (37 saves on 40 shots)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Tyler Ho (0-0-0)
