FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Saturday, February 11th
VEES KEEP STREAK ALIVE; EDGE TRIBE
PENTICTON, BC-The Penticton Vees almost squandered a five goal lead before hanging on to beat the Westside Westside 7-5 on Saturday night. The Vees had a 6-1 lead after forty minutes before a nervous final period.
The Vees got off to a strong start, building up a two goal lead in the first fifteen minutes against the Warriors.
Joey Benik opened the scoring by converting on a Zach Urban rebound one minute and fort-two seconds into the game; Benik would show up on the score sheet two more times. Cody DePourcq built on Benik’s opener, again off a rebound in front of Dwayne Rodrigue for his third goal in four periods; his sixth coming just before the fifteen minute mark.
Ryan Reilly scored for the second straight night, early in the second period, collecting a Logan Johnston rebound and sliding it into an open net; his twenty-ninth coming two minutes and thirty-seven seconds in the middle stanza.
The celebration was muted three minutes later when Max French put the Warriors on the board with a short-handed tally just past the five minute mark; the first short-handed goal surrendered by the Vees this season.
Penticton replied quickly thereafter, scoring a short-handed marker, when Joey Benik finished a give-and-go with Steve Fogarty seconds shy of the twelve minute mark. Fogarty intercepted the puck at the blue-line and went in on a two-on-oh with Benik, who had an open side after a cross-crease pass.
The Vees blew things open, or so they thought, when Wade Murphy and Steve Fogarty scored one minute and fifty seconds apart late in the period, giving the home side a five goal lead after forty minutes.
In the third period, the Warriors outscored the Vees 4-1 and created some nervous and tense moments at the SOEC.
Shawn Hochhausen scored just shy of the five minute mark putting some life back into the Warriors. On the very next shift, just sixteen seconds later, Marcus Basara tapped in a back-door pass to cut the deficit in half.
Connor Dempsey and Max French’s second cut the lead to just one goal for Penticton and threatened the winning streak.
However, Joey Benik put the game away with an empty-net goal, his third of the game, with twenty-three seconds left; preserving the Vees thirty-second straight win.
FINAL: 7-5 Vees
SHOTS: 44-22 VEES
PP: VEES 0/2 WARRIORS 0/2
THREE STARS 1) Steven Fogarty 2) Joey Benik 3) Max French
Attendance: 2366
The win pushes the Vees consecutive wins record to thirty-two games; a new career best for Head Coach Fred Harbinson. He fashioned together a thirty-one game winning streak with the Fernie Ghostriders when they played in the American West Hockey League.
The Vees don’t play again until next Friday, February 17th when they host the Vernon Vipers; the final game between the two teams in the regular season. Tickets for the game can be purchased at the SOEC Box Office or Valleyfirsttix.com.
The pre-game show on EZ Rock AM 800 starts twenty minutes prior to puck drop; you can also tune in on MyEZRock.com, and at BCHL.ca where both the audio stream and Pay-Per-View video are available.
CONTACT: FRASER RODGERS
Director of Broadcasting, Media Relations
Penticton Vees Hockey Club
FraserRodgers@gmail.com(250) 809-1390
HEADER
