Arena: SOEC, Penticton
Game Time: 7pm
Radio: EZ Rock AM 800
Watch: Fasthockey Pay-Per-View
The Penticton Vees (30-13-2-4) look to finally solve the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (25-18-1-5) at the SOEC tonight. Salmon Arm has won all five meetings this season, including sweeping a home-and-home series last weekend. The Silverbacks are only one of three teams the Vees haven’t at least beat once this season, the Nanaimo Clippers and Coquitlam Express are the other two.
The Vees got back in the win column on Wednesday, doubling up the Trail Smoke Eaters 6-3, in front of over 1,900 fans at the SOEC. Brad McClure, Erik Benoit (2), Brett Beauvais and Matt Serratore scored in the win and McClure finished with a game-high five points (1-4-5). The Vees special teams had a strong showing, as they scored three times on the power-play (3-7) and kept the Smokies power-play off the scoreboard (2-2). Hunter Miska stopped 16 of 18 shots for his 15th win of the season; he’s now 4-0-0 against Trail.
Hunter Miska goes again tonight, originally Olivier Mantha was slated to start but will sit out due to an illness. Miska is 15-6-2-4 on the year, with a 2.38 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage; 10-6-1-2 versus the Interior with a .914 save percentage. Backing up Miska tonight will be 16-year-old Brendan Barry from the Okanagan Rockets of the BC Major Midget League. Max Coatta draws back into the line-up after sitting out Wednesday’s contest against Trail; Cam Amantea and Josh Blanchard won’t dress this evening.
Consistency will be the key tonight for Penticton, as they will need a determined effort to beat a hard-working Salmon Arm team. The second period has been the Vees Achilles heel in this season series, as they’ve been outscored 9-0 in the middle frame by Salmon Arm.
Cody DePourcq leads the Vees in scoring against Salmon Arm, with three points, all goals, in five games. After DePourcq there’s five players tied for second in team scoring with two points each.
Salmon Arm had their five-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday, when they dropped a 5-2 decision to the West Kelowna Warriors at the Shaw Centre. The Tribe got out to a four-goal lead near the midway mark of the second, before Taylor Maruya answered back for Salmon Arm. Nic Josephs and Seb Lloyd traded goals in the third period.
The ‘Backs again were missing four regulars in that loss, as Evan Anderson, Adam Clark, Alex Gillies and Colton Thibault did not dress.
After tonight, these two Interior Division foes wrap up their eight-game season series with a home-and-home series on the final weekend of the BCHL regular season, starting Friday, February 28th.
