Penticton, BC: The Penticton Vees may have been caught off guard by the Cowichan Valley Capitals in game one of the Interior Division quarterfinals on Thursday, dropping a 4-1 game on home ice. The Vees now look to make it a best-of-three series with game two taking place Saturday at 6:00.
Thursday the Capitals opened the scoring on a turnover with five minutes to go in the first. After the puck rolled off James Miller’s stick and ended up behind the Penticton net, Niko Selivanov centred for Paul Selleck who jammed it under the glove arm of Jack LaFontaine.
Penticton tied the game early in the second as Eric Linell jumped on a loose puck after a long shot from the line was deflected. The lead didn’t last long.
A bad change by the Vees defence allowed Selivanov to get behind the defence and take a stretch pass for a breakaway, beating LaFontaine over the blocker to restore the Capitals lead three minutes later.
Cowichan extended their lead off a face-off three minutes later as Dimitri Mikrogiannakis leaned into a slap shot from the right point that got past a screened LaFontaine.
The Vees had their chances on the man advantage all night, but couldn’t take advantage of the last-ranked penalty kill during the 2018-19 season finishing 0-for-5 on the night.
After Ryan Sandelin made three saves with his net empty, the Capitals would finally ice the game as Selivanov beat out an icing call and hit the empty net with 1:06 to play sending the fans to the exits.
The loss was the first time the Vees have lost game one in the first round at home since 2015 against the West Kelowna Warriors.
Penticton will get at least one reinforcement into the lineup for game two as Luke Loheit is eligible to play following a four-game suspension he received with three games left in the regular season.
Team Statistics
Leading Scorers
Penticton Vees
Eric Linell – 1G 0A 1GP
Lukas Sillinger – 0G 1A 1GP
Mason Snell – 0G 1A 1GP
Cowichan Valley Capitals
Niko Selivanov – 2G 2A 1GP
Paul Selleck – 1G 1A 1GP
Dimitri Mikrogiannakis – 1G 0A 1GP
Special Teams
Penticton Vees
Power Play – 0.0 per cent
Penalty Kill – 0.0 per cent
Cowichan Valley Capitals
Power Play – 0.0 per cent
Penalty Kill – 100.0 per cent
Series Schedule
Game one – Vees 1 vs Capitals 4 Boxscore
Game two – Vees vs Capitals March 2, 2019
Game three – Vees @ Capitals March 5, 2019
Game four – Vees @ Capitals March 6, 2019
Game five – Vees vs Capitals March 9, 2019*
Game six – Vees @ Capitals, March 11, 2019*
Game seven – Vees vs Capitals March 13, 2019*
*If necessary
