FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Saturday, February 09, 2013
Penticton, BC– It was a reunion of sorts for three Vees and they had their fingerprints all over the score-sheet. Louie Nanne, Wade Murphy and Jedd Soleway teamed up for six goals and 14 points, as the Vees doubled-up the Alberni Valley Bulldogs 8-4 Saturday. The win snaps the Bulldogs five-game win streak and is the Vees eighth in their last nine games.
Louie Nanne stole the spotlight on Saturday, scoring four times but it was Jedd Soleway and Wade Murphy finishing with a game-high five points each.
After being shutout for sixty-minutes one night earlier, the Vees scored four goals in a 10:21 second span in the first period. Ryan Gropp started things off with a nifty deke on a partial breakaway at 9:38. Gropp came down the left-wing with a head full of steam and put a fore-hand, backhand deke through the legs of Jay Deo for his 11th; his second against the Bulldogs.
Gropp’s roommate got in on the act just sixty-four seconds later, as Louie Nanne scored his first of four at 10:42. Nanne finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play setup by Wade Murphy and Jedd Soleway. Murphy centered the puck from the left-wall, which Soleway tipped to the back-post for Nanne, who tapped in his 14th and first in 13 games.
The three teamed up for the Vees third goal not even six-minutes later, as Nanne picked up his second of the period at 16:23. Jedd Soleway threw the puck to the net from the right-wing. Nanne moving out front from the right-corner just got enough of the puck with his stick to redirect it by Deo for his 15th.
The Vees weren’t done there as Jedd Soleway picked up his first of two just before time ran out in the period. In the dying moments of the frame, John Siemer, from the left goal-line, picked up a dump-in and fired a cross-crease pass to a streaking Soleway at the back-post. Soleway whacked in the puck moments before the buzzer went to end the first; his 14th coming at 19:59.
The goals kept coming in the second for the Vees, as Louie Nanne knotted his hat-trick goal midway through the period on a Vees man-advantage. Sean Flanagan made a nice move on the left-wall, outwaiting the defender, before hitting Nanne with a pass in the slot. Nanne would not miss, rifling a shot past Brad Rebagliati at 10:42 to put the Vees up by five; Rebagliati replaced starter Jay Deo at the start of the second period for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs started to chip away at the Vees 5-0 lead not too long after, scoring two goals in 2:10. Kurt Gosselin got the Bulldogs on the score-sheet with his seeing-eye wrist-shot from the point. Gosselin put a wrist-shot from the left-point through the arm of Chad Katunar at 12:02. The Bulldogs cut the deficit to three seventy seconds later while on the power-play. Chase Van Allen’s slap-shot just had enough behind it to squirt pass Katunar’s glove at 14:12. Van Allen leaned into a one-timer that deflected off the diving Katunar and in to make a game of it.
Louie Nanne and the Vees wasted little time responding, as Nanne picked up his fourth of the night forty-eight seconds later. Nanne was the recipient of a nice passing play between Jed Soleway and Wade Murphy; Nanne finishing it off with his 17th at the fifteen-minute mark.
Soleway closed out the scoring once again in the period, snapping a wrist-shot off the rush through the legs of Brad Rebagliati at 16:38.
After the dust settled in a back-and-forth second period, the teams combined for five goals in a 5:56 span; the Vees leading 7-2 through forty minutes.
Like in the second period, the Bulldogs put together a rally of sorts in the opening minutes of the third. Jared Wilson and Teal Burns scored less than five minutes apart. Wilson scored on the power-play at 2:16, as his point-shot deflected up and over the glove of Chad Katunar; it appeared to be touched by Manny Gialedakis. Burns was credited with the Bulldogs fourth goal at the five-minute mark. Gialedakis again should be credited with the goal after his pass banked off the skate of Bryan Sinz and past Katunar to trim the Vees lead to three.
Sam Mellor put the end to any Bulldogs comeback attempt with a power-play goal just before the midway mark. Mellor was setup in the right-circle after Siemer fired a pass from the left goal-line. Mellor stepped into the pass and blasted a shot over the glove of Rebagliati at 9:46; the Vees cashing in on their third power-play goal.
FINAL SCORE:8-4 Vees
Shots: 34-29 Bulldogs
Power-Play: Vees 3-6 Bulldogs 2-6
Three Stars: 1) Louie Nanne 2) Jedd Soleway 3) Wade Murphy
Attendance: 1,582
GAME NOTES:
The Vees take both games of the season-series, outscoring the Bulldogs 14-7. The win moves the Vees record to 32-12-0-6 and 10 points up on Merritt for 1st in the Interior Division; the Centennials were still playing at press time. With the eight goals tonight, the Vees have now have scored 19 goals in their last three games. Wade Murphy has picked up 12 points in three games and Louie Nanne scored four goals after having just one point in his previous seven games.
The Vees are off until Friday, February 15th when the host the Salmon Arm Silverbacks; face-off is 7pm. The Vees play three games in two and a half days next weekend, starting Friday with Salmon Arm, before stopping in Merritt, and ending the weekend back home Sunday afternoon against the Cowichan Valley Capitals. Tickets for Friday and Sunday are available at the Valley First box office at the SOEC, or online at www.valleyfirsttix.com
