Penticton, BC: The Penticton Vees were looking for more offence in game two of their Interior Division quarter final against the Coquitlam Express after a hard-fought 2-1 win in game one, and got their wish as they pumped Coquitlam 9-2 to take a 2-0 series lead.
Chris Klack opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game as he finished off a cross-crease feed on the power play. Taylor Ward and Wyatt Sloboshan assisted on Klack’s first of the playoffs.
Massimo Rizzo extended the Vees lead with a highlight reel goal late in the frame. After Leivermann tried to get through two defenders, Rizzo found the puck in the slot and pulled it to his backhand around the Express defenceman before roofing a backhand shot over Brock Hamm.
Just over a minute after the goal the Express answered. Adam Scheel made a left pad save on a shot from the left wing, but the rebound came to Haydn Delorme who fired a sharp angle shot on Scheel. The Vees goaltender was an inch away from making a highlight reel save as the puck went off his glove and into the net to make it 2-1 Vees after one period.
Penticton’s offence came to life in the second and it started with Jackson Keane. After the Express turned the puck over in front of the net, Marcus Mitchell fed it to Keane in front of the goal and all he had to do was shovel it past Hamm for his first of the playoffs.
Four and a half minutes later, Ward gathered a rebound in front of Hamm before pulling it to his backhand and sliding it past the outstretched goalie to make it 4-1 Vees.
Four minutes after Ward’s goal, Rizzo sent a long bank feed up the right wing for Dakota Boutin who came down the right wing. Ward busted to the front of the goal, allowing Boutin to skate into the right circle before beating Hamm on the glove side to make it 5-1.
Before the period was up, Rizzo added his second of the game by one timing a feed from Ward below the goal line and the Vees went into the second intermission ahead by five goals.
Just over a minute into the third, Ward rushed up the middle of the ice on the power play, taking a feed from Klack before beating Hamm while in alone for another power-play goal.
Four minutes after the goal, while on another power play, Mitchell tapped home a cross-ice feed from Ocean Wiesblatt for the Vees third power-play goal of the night.
The scoring was capped off by Ward and he completed the hat trick by sweeping in a rebound while falling to the ice 7:38 into the third.
Coquitlam added another goal as Eric Linell was about to beat Scheel on his own rebound, as the game would end in a 9-2 final.
The Vees now head to Coquitlam for games three and four Tuesday and Wednesday night at 7:00.
