Penticton, BC: The Penticton Vees (18-5-1-2) won for the eighth time in row Wednesday night thanks to a stellar performance from Adam Scheel; he made 33 saves to record his second-straight shutout as the Vees blanked the West Kelowna Warriors (16-12-1-0) 3-0.
No goals in the opening period as the Warriors came out with a strong 20 minutes trying to rebound from the 11-3 pounding the Vees handed them 12 days ago. Both teams finished with seven shots in the first period, thought the Warriors had the more dangerous chances.
In the second, Ryan Sandelin opened the scoring with his fifth of the year. While on the power play, Jonny Tychonick let a slap shot go from the blue line that hit a few bodies on its way through and beat Nik Amundrud.
The game remained 1-0 into the third period where Scheel made his case for save of the year in the BCHL. Willie Reim came into the Vees zone with speed down the right wing before cutting to the net. Reid’s backhand chance was stopped by Scheel, but the Vees goalie was knocked out of position by Reim as he continued through with his charge to the net.
While laying flat on his stomach, Scheel tracked the puck to the slot where RJ Murphy gathered it. Scheel reached out with his glove and managed to stop Murphy from putting the puck into an open net, keeping the score at 1-0 Vees.
Later in the period, while on the power play, Massimo Rizzo had the puck at the Warriors goal line and caught Amundrud leaning to his blocker side as he fired the puck past the Warriors goalie to make it 2-0 Vees with 6:36 left in the game.
Dakota Boutin rounded out the scoring on the night as the stole the puck away from Chase Dubois at the Warriors blue line before sliding it into the open net to give the Vees the 3-0 win.
Penticton now hits the road for a pair of games on Vancouver Island beginning Friday night at the Frank Crane Arena against the Nanaimo Clippers (15-9-3-2) who are coming off a 6-1 win over the Cowichan Valley Capitals Wednesday night.
