Photo credit: Jack Murray
Regular Season Recap
Penticton: For the eighth straight year the Penticton Vees will hang an Interior Division pennant banner at the South Okanagan Events Centre. It came down to the final game of the season, but a 4-0 win over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks in the regular season finale clinched first in the division for Penticton and home-ice advantage for potentially three rounds of playoffs. Despite a myriad of injuries, the Vees managed to stay at or near the top of the division all season long. Three players, Jackson Niedermayer, Conner Hutchison and Drew Elser, were lost for the year with injuries, while many others sustained long-term ailments. More often than not this season, the Vees were forced to dress 10 forwards, five defenceman or some other combination of a shortened bench. It almost never hampered their play, perhaps never more prominent than November 17 when the Vees hosted the high-flying Victoria Grizzlies and had just three regular defenceman at their disposal. James Miller and Mason Snell each played over 30 minutes and helped Penticton win 4-1.
Cowichan: The Capitals fought tooth and nail all season to ensure they stayed in the playoff picture. The start of the season was especially tough as they won just three of their first 15 games. Interestingly enough, the Interior Division was the one Cowichan had the most success against this season. A 7-6-1 record against the Interior was much better than the 8-20-1-3 record against the Island Division and 2-9-1 against the Mainland. The Capitals spent the majority of the season playing catch up the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, looking to avoid crossing over into the Interior Division for the opening round of the playoffs, but a 6-2 loss to the Bulldogs February 15 more or less sealed their fate as the fifth seed in the division.
Season Series Recap
September 14, 2018: The Vees first win of the season came against the Capitals. Penticton travelled to the Island for the second weekend of the season playing a pair of games in Duncan and Victoria. Drew Elser scored in the opening and final minute of the second period to help give the Vees a 3-1 lead after two. David Silye scored early in the third before the Capitals got one back to make the final score 4-2. It was a penalty-filled affair that saw the Vees go 1/9 on the man advantage and Cowichan 1/6 as the two teams combined for 46 PIM and six misconducts. Capitals coach Mike Vandekamp was ejected in the third period. Boxscore
October 13, 2018: Another game riddled with penalties saw the Vees use the power play to their advantage, finishing 3/13 in a 4-1 win. After the Capitals opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal the parade to the penalty box began. Cowichan took a five-minute checking from behind call in the second and a seven-minute fighting and instigator penalty in the third. All told, the Capitals racked up 35 penalty minutes, four game misconducts and three other misconduct penalties. Boxscore
Head to head comparison
Offence
Penticton: Penticton finished with an even 200 goals this season, down from 216 during the 2017-18 season. Ryan Sandelin led the charge as the only 30-goal scorer by finishing with 31 while Eric Linell and David Silye rounded out the top three with 26 and 21 goals respectively. Defenceman James Miller was the Vees leading scorer with 62 points, becoming the first defenceman to lead Penticton in scoring since Joey Laleggia in the 2010-11 season. Silye was the only other 60-point scorer this year while Linell (56) and Sandelin (51) surpassed the 50-point mark. Last season Penticton had just one player over 50 points. Penticton had seven players reach double digits in goals and two more with nine goals.
Cowichan: The Capitals finished the season with 159 goals which ranked 15th in the BCHL. Like the Vees, a defenceman led the team in scoring as David Melaragni scored 12 goals and 38 assists for an even 50 points. The next highest scorer was Niko Esposito-Selivanov with 40 and Paul Selleck with 34. Seven players hit double digits in goals.
Defence
Penticton: The Vees gave up 143 goals this season which was second best in the BCHL, finishing behind only Prince George (120). Defenceman contributed 37 of Penticton’s goals this season with Miller leading the way at 18. Miller had nearly three times as many points as the next highest scoring defenceman (Jack Lagerstrom, 22 points).
Cowichan: Considering they finished 18 games below .500, it’s no surprise the Capitals gave up a ton of goals this season. Their 220 goals against was tied for 16th in the league, with only the Surrey Eagles (259) surrendering more. The -61 goal differential was also 16th in the league, again only ahead of Surrey (-116). Melaragni did the majority of the offensive damage from the blue line with his 50 points. Dimitri Mikrogiannakis was second with 27 points with a big drop off and Doug Scott third at 12.
Goaltending
Penticton: Jack LaFontaine was announced as the BCHL’s Top Goaltender February 26. In his 20-year-old season he posted a record of 30-10-2-1 with a .923 save percentage and 2.19 goals-against average. His wins, save percentage and GAA all ranked second amongst BCHL goalies while his three shutouts tied him for third. He and his goaltending parter Derek Krall were announced as the winners of the Wally Forslund Trophy for lowest BCHL GAA. Combined they posted a 2.33 GAA this season, becoming the sixth Vees goaltending duo over the past seven seasons to win the award.
Cowichan: Jack Grant saw the majority of action for the Capitals this season, appearing in 31 games with an 8-19-2-1 record, 3.55 GAA and .893 save percentage. He played against the Vees September 14 giving up four goals on 40 shots in the 4-1 loss. Cowichan then acquired Pierce Diamond from the Flin Flon Bombers of the SJHL at the trade deadline and the 20-year-old started 11 games down the stretch with a 5-5-1 record, 3.34 GAA and .886 save percentage.
Special Teams
Penticton: The Vees power play struggled with consistency during the 2018-19 season and finished in the middle of the pack at 10th overall, connecting at an even 20.0 per cent rate. Penticton’s 55 power-play goals ranked tied for 5th in the league and they had the fourth most power-play opportunities at 260. The Vees had significantly more power plays at home (148) than on the road (112). Ryan Sandelin led the entire BCHL with 15 power-play goals while Massimo Rizzo was tied for fourth with 20 power-play assists, despite playing in just 37 games. James Miller led all BCHL defencemen with 30 power-play points, 10 goals and 20 assists.
The penalty kill was stronger at 82.2 per cent, putting them at fifth in the BCHL. At the friendly confines of the SOEC, Penticton had the number one ranked penalty kill at 85.8 per cent, while the road penalty kill was ninth at 78.2. The Vees scored five shorthanded goals this season tied for second in the league and gave up just three. David Silye and Eric Linell both scored three shorthanded goals.
Cowichan: The Capitals power play wasn’t far behind Penticton’s at 19.0 per cent this season, 12th in the BCHL. Their play with the man advantage at home was impressive as they ranked fourth in the league at 25.0 per cent, but the power play struggled on the road all season and finished last at just 13.4 per cent. Unsurprisingly, David Melaragni was the driving force of the Capitals power play as he finished with 28 power-play points, seven goals and 21 assists.
Considering the Capitals were the most penalized team in the league this season, and their goal differential, it may not be surprising to see their penalty kill at the bottom of the league. The 74.8 per cent penalty kill was just behind Nanaimo (75.0) for worst in the league. The Capitals were the only team to be shorthanded more than 300 times this season (302) with 172 of those coming on the road. Their 942 penalty minutes led the league by a wide margin, with Merritt coming second at 817.
Series Dates
Game one – Thursday, February 28 7:00 @ South Okanagan Events Centre
Game two – Saturday, March 2 6:00 @ South Okanagan Events Centre
Game three – Tuesday, March 5 7:00 @ Island Savings Centre
Game four – Wednesday, March 6 7:00 @ Island Savings Centre
Game five – Saturday, March 9 6:00 @ South Okanagan Events Centre*
Game six – Monday March 11 7:00 @ Island Savings Centre*
Game seven – Wednesday, March 13 7:00 @ South Okanagan Events Centre*
*If Necessary
