Who: Warriors at Vees
Where: SOEC, Penticton
When: 7pm.
The Penticton Vees and West Kelowna Warriors go at it again tonight, when the Vees host their neighbours to the north at the SOEC; puck drop is 7pm.
The Vees have won three in a row and are undefeated since the calendar flipped over to 2014, posting a 3-0-1-0 mark in four games in the New Year. Penticton swept their weekend schedule last week, picking up a pair of one-goal wins over Vernon Friday (2-1) and Trail Saturday (3-2); both on the road.
On Saturday, the Vees trailed 2-0 early in the second period to the Trail Smoke Eaters, before Brad McClure, Ben Dalpe (Short-Handed) and Patrick Sexton scored to grab the Vees their first lead of the game. Penticton fought-off some late pressure by the Smokies in the third to preserve the one-goal win.
It was a similar story one night earlier, as the Vees trailed after the first period in Vernon, before Nic Pierog and Erik Benoit scored second periods goals to give the Vees their first lead going into the break. Vernon pressured late in the third but Hunter Miska and the Vees were able to fend-off the Vipers comeback attempt.
Max Coatta will likely miss his second straight game as he recovers from an upper-body injury he sustained in Vernon on Friday. Hunter Miska is your projected starter after Olivier Mantha got the call Saturday in Trail. Miska is 13-3-2-3 on the season, with a 2.27 goals-against average, while maintaining a .917 save-percentage; he’s 2-1-0 against West Kelowna.
Shane McColgan makes his Vees debut tonight after being signed by the team at the January 10th roster deadline. McColgan, 21, played parts of five seasons in the Western Hockey League, averaging nearly a point per-game in almost 300 career games. The Manhattan Beach, California native played three seasons with the Kelowna Rockets, before stops in Saskatoon and Portland. McColgan has won a WHL championship in 2009 and has appeared in two Memorial Cups.
The Vees won the first three games of the season series before being swept in a two-game set before the Christmas Break. The Vees in an unfamiliar position against West Kelowna, as at the start of the season, the Vees had won 20 of the last 23 match ups with the Warriors. After tonight, these two rivals wrap-up the seven-game season series February 18th back in West Kelowna.
West Kelowna has put together a nice streak of their own, as they’re undefeated in six (5-0-1-0) and hasn’t dropped a game since December 18th (3-1 loss in Vernon). They won their only game last week, thumping Coquitlam 7-2 at home on Friday. They should be well-rested, as the Tribe have only played two games in the last 11 days ahead of tonight’s clash.
