Penticton, BC: The Penticton Vees (33-10-2-3) are in sole possession of top spot in the BCHL after their 5-1 win against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks Saturday night, and now begin a home and home series against the Trail Smoke Eaters (30-14-4-1), a team trying to track them down.
Saturday the Vees scored three goals in a 62-second span in the second period en route to the 5-1 win over the Silverbacks. Taylor Ward opened the scoring in the opening minutes of the game before Rhett Kingston tied it 35 seconds later.
Halfway through the second, Owen Sillinger’s power-play goal opened the floodgates for the Vees. Fourteen seconds after Sillinger’s goal, James Miller wired a slap shot from the slot past Reid Cooper to make it 3-1.
Forty-eight seconds after that, Massimo Rizzo beat Cooper off the rush with a wrist shot from the slot to cap off the onslaught. Sillinger would add a second goal on the man advantage with just over a minute to go in the middle frame.
No other goals came in the final 20 minutes, but that wasn’t the end of the action. Adam Scheel was run over in the Penticton crease by Kingston and Michael Campoli, forcing Scheel to leave the game with under two minutes to play.
Tensions boiled over after that with a fight between Kenny Johnson and Demitri Kambeitz, putting the Vees down two men for the remainder of the game. Nolan Hildebrand held the fort off the bench, stopping all four shots he faced in less than two minutes of playing time to preserve the 5-1 win.
Trail welcomed a pair of Mainland Division opponents last weekend, pounding the Langley Riven 8-1 before squeaking past the Coquitlam Express 5-4. The wins extended Trail’s winning streak to four, scoring 24 goals over that span.
The recent stretch has put Trail just six points behind the Vees for first in the Interior Division, but they’re still in fourth place due to the strength of the division. Wednesday will be the fifth meeting of the year between the two teams, with the Vees holding a 2-1-0-1 record against Trail.
The most recent meeting was anti-bullying night for Penticton when Jonny Tychonick fired home the game winner on the power play in overtime to send over 4,200 fans at the South Okanagan Events Centre home happy with the 3-2 win.
Following the game, the Vees will head home to get set to host the Smoke Eaters Friday before the final meeting of the regular season against the Vernon Vipers on Saturday.
Team Statistics
Leading Scorers
Penticton Vees
Owen Sillinger – 26 G 23 A 46 GP
Jonny Tychonick – 8 G 31 A 40 GP
Taylor Ward – 16 G 17 A 36 GP
Trail Smoke Eaters
Ross Armour – 20 G 38 A 43 GP
Kale Howarth – 24 G 33 A 39 GP
Levi Glasman – 20 G 27 A 44 GP
Special Teams
Penticton Vees
Power play – 20.7% (4th in BCHL)
Penalty kill – 87.0% (1st in BCHL)
Trail Smoke Eaters
Power play – 21.8% (3rd in BCHL)
Penalty kill – 81.1% (13th in BCHL)
Season Series
October 28, 2017 – Vees 1 @ Smoke Eaters 4 Boxscore
November 22, 2017 – Vees 2 @ Smoke Eaters 1 Boxscore
January 12, 2018 – Vees 2 vs Smoke Eaters 2 OT2 Boxscore
January 20, 2018 – Vees 3 vs Smoke Eaters 2 OT Boxscore
February 7, 2018 – Vees @ Smoke Eaters
February 9, 2018 – Vees vs Smoke Eaters
