PENTICTON, BC – The Penticton Vees needed a kick-start and the power-play was the answer. The Vees scored two power-play goals in the
first en route to a 5-1 victory over the Westside Warriors on Friday. It wasn’t a perfect start for Penticton; the Warriors came strong out of the gate, putting pucks on Mike Garteig at every opportunity.
However the Vees weathered the storm early and drew the Warriors into
penalty trouble late in the first and Penticton capitalized. Ryan Reilly continues to wield a hot-stick; the forward opened the scoring on the power-play at 14:33. It was his brother Mike creating the scoring chance; the defender rushed down the right-wing before throwing a soft pass across the zone on the blocker side for Ryan to tap in his 20th.
Not long after the Vees drew another power-play and not long afte they went up by a pair. Just like the opening goal, the second came off another pretty passing play. Travis St. Denis took the puck across the blue-line, down the left-wing, and went around the defender, before he fired a hard pass across to Mario Lucia at the right circle; Lucia dropped to one knee before wiring home his 23rd goal at 17:43 The Warriors almost cut the deficit in half in the dying moments of the first period. Mike Garteig thwarted Connor Dempsey’s redirect in close with a sharp left-pad save.
In the middle frame, Penticton scored two more goals but this time both came at even-strength, both in the late moments of the period. Joey Benik opened the scoring in the period after a clever pass off the stick of St. Denis from behind the goal-line. St. Denis took the puck behind the net from the right-wing and appeared to be poised for a wrap-around attempt; however the slick forward quickly reversed the puck, between his legs, to Benik back at the near side for a tap in; Benik converted his 11th of the season at 16:11.
Before the period was out, the Vees extended their lead to four goals off some nice work by Ryan Reilly once more. Reilly corralled a loose puck in the neutral zone, before rushing down the left side and almost putting in his second goal of the game. Reilly stick-handled his way around the Westside defender and was turned aside by Dwayne Rodrigue; however the Warriors forgot about Curtis Loik. Loik followed the rush to the net, crashed the crease, and shoveled the puck across the line at 18:01.
Both teams traded goals in the third period; the Warriors getting on the board first. On the opening shift of the period, Westside rushed the puck in down the left-wing and Max French finished the play by redirecting a puck past Garteig just nineteen seconds in.
That’s as close as the Warriors came though; Ryan Reilly sealed the game later in the period on an impressive individual effort. Reilly took an opening on the right-wing and made the most of it; stepping around the Warriors defenseman in the circle before walking the goal-line and putting a puck up and over Rodrigue for his second of the contest at 13:03.
FINAL SCORE: 5-1 Vees
SHOTS: 40-33 Vees
Power-Plays: Vees- 1 /2 Warriors- 0/3
Three Stars: 1) Ryan Reilly 2) Mike Reilly) 3) Troy Stecher
Attendance: 1,884
Hardest Working Vee: Bryce Gervais.
The Vees can set a new franchise record for consecutive wins tomorrow with 18.
The win improves the Vees league best record to 29-3-0-2 for a 20 point lead atop of the Interior Conference.
The Vees next home game is Saturday, the seventeenth of December, when the defending Coastal Conference Champion Powell River Kings come to the SOEC; game time is 7pm. Tickets for the contest can be purchased at the SOEC box office or by going to www.valleyfirsttix.com.
All Vees games are broadcast on EZ Rock AM 800 with the pre-game show commencing twenty minutes prior to puck drop.
