Penticton, BC: The Penticton Vees (10-5-1-1) opened the scoring, but two goals just 12 seconds apart by the Powell River Kings (11-4-1-1) near the end of the first period gave them a lead they had for the rest of the night in the 4-2 Kings win Saturday night.
Jonny Tychonick got the Vees off on the right foot when his long slap shot from the left point eluded all traffic in front of the net and beat a screened Mitch Adamyk on the glove side nearly eight minutes into the game.
Penticton had a good opening 18 minutes controlling the majority of the play, but the Kings took the lead in the blink of an eye. The tying goal came off a deflection in front as Gavin Rauser got a piece of a point shot which then hit Nolan Hildebrand’s glove and into the net to tie the game.
Off the face-off the Kings got the puck into the attacking zone again, and after a shot hit the post on Hildebrand’s blocker side, it sat behind him in the crease. Neal Samanski swept the loose puck into the net as the Kings took the 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
With the Vees on the power play in the second, it was the Kings taking advantage. A dump in was intercepted by Andy Stevens and he was able to skate in on a breakaway before beating Hildebrand with a backhand move to make it 3-1 Powell River after two periods.
The power-play chances for the Vees continued to rack up in the third period, but they had a tough time getting into the Kings zone as the scoring chances were few and far between through the first half of the period.
Ben Berard jumped on a rebound off a shot from the blue line that missed the net but bounced out to the other side as he chipped it over Hildebrand to make the score 4-1 heading into the final minutes.
The Vees were given a five-minute power play after Jack Long dropped his gloves and went after Ryan Sandelin hit Long into the boards. On the advantage the Vees were able to add another power-play goal as Jackson Keane backhanded a puck through Adamyk’s pads with 2:26 remaining.
Adamyk shut the door after the goal as he finished with 35 saves in the 4-2 Kings win. It was the first game Powell River had ever won at the South Okanagan Events Centre since it opened in 2008.
The Vees now have a week of practice ahead of them before they get set to welcome the Vernon Vipers in the first half of a home and home series next Friday.
