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Preview: Vees host Wild for final Wicked Wednesday

Penticton, BC: The Penticton Vees (35-15-3-2) enter Wednesday with a game in hand on the Merritt Centennials, and they need to use it to their advantage when they host the Wenatchee Wild (31-20-2-4) to stay two points up in the Interior Division.

The Vees hosted the Langley Rivermen Saturday night, skating away with a hard-fought 3-1 win. The first period ended 0-0, but mostly thanks to Jack LaFontaine who turned aside 15 shots including a cross-ice pass by diving out to his glove hand side and taking away a sure goal from Colten Kovich.

Penticton settled down in the second period but gave up the opening goal. Daneel Lategan tipped a puck over Evan McIntyre at centre and came in on a breakaway, beating LaFontaine on the glove side 6:48 into the frame.

Despite chance after chance, the Vees could never seem to get a stick on loose pucks in front of the net to try and tie the game. 

With six minutes to go in the period, Luke Loheit nailed Lategan with an open-ice hit and Lategan laid motionless on the ice for a few minutes. When the dust settled, Loheit was given a five-minute interference penalty and a game misconduct. Monday he was handed a four-game suspension.

Despite the lengthy man advantage, Langley clearly got frustrated a took two minor penalties during the major. Late in the period the Vees finally tied the game as Ryan Sandelin beat Braeden Fleming from the slot with eight seconds to go.

Early in the third David Silye scored a power-play goal from the right circle to make it 2-1 before Sandelin capped off the scoring with 42 seconds left. The Vees gave up just four shots in the third.

Wenatchee was in action Tuesday, winning 4-1 against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. Josh Arnold led with way with three assists and Cal Sandquist turned aside 29 shots in the win. Wednesday’s game is Wenatchee’s final regular season game.

The Vees have won the last two games against their division rivals after dropping the first three. Most recently was February 1, a 4-2 Vees win in front of 3,461 fans at the SOEC. Sandelin scored the game-winning goal with seven minutes to play after the Wild battled back from a 2-0 deficit.

The Vees look to regain their two-point lead over the Merritt Centennials after Merritt’s 4-1 win against West Kelowna Tuesday night.

Team Statistics

Leading Scorers

Penticton Vees

James Miller – 18G 43 A 55GP

Eric Linell – 26G 29A 57GP

David Silye – 18G 37G 51GP

Wenatchee Wild

Matt Gosiewski – 28G 22A 49GP

Murphy Stratton – 13G 33A 55GP

Lucas Sowder – 11G 33A 41GP

Special Teams

Penticton Vees

Power Play – 19.4 per cent (11th in BCHL)

Penalty Kill – 82.3 per cent (5th in BCHL)

Wenatchee Wild

Power Play – 18.3 per cent (14th in BCHL)

Penalty Kill – 81.3 per cent (8th in BCHL)

Season Series

November 28, 2018 – Vees 2 @ Wild 4 Boxscore

December 7, 2018 – Vees 2 @ Wild 5 Boxscore

December 8, 2018 – Vees 3 vs Wild 4 Boxscore

January 16, 2019 – Vees 3 @ Wild 2 SO Boxscore

February 1, 2019 – Vees 4 vs Wild 2 Boxscore

February 20, 2019 – Vees vs Wild