VEES SWEEP WEEKEND; SIT A TOP OF INTERIOR CONFERENCE
Penticton, BC- The Penticton Vees won both their games this weekend
over Westside and Vernon, and in doing so have moved into first place
in the Interior Conference.
On Friday in West Kelowna, Mario Lucia had five points and Travis St.
Denis and Connor Reilly each scored twice in Penticton’s 8-3 win over
the Warriors.
St. Denis opened the scoring in the first period, on the power-play
just before the five minute mark. St.Denis tipped a Joey Benik shot
past the goaltender Darren Hogg to give the visitors the all-important
first goal.
Connor Reilly stretched the lead to two when he scored his first of
two at 8:06; and he doubled his goal output when he scored at 15:25 of
the first period. St.Denis book-ended the two Reilly goals with his
second of the period at 16:46 on another power-play.
The second period saw both teams combine for five goals in 10:13.
Highlighting the scoring was Garrett Hendrickson scoring his first
BCHL goal at 2:27 of the frame to give the Vees, then a 5-2 lead.
Cody DePourcq scored his second of the year, just seven seconds after
a Westside tally to give Penticton a 6-3 lead after two periods.
Mario Lucia added a goal to his point output on Friday when he scored
just over four minutes into the third period. He then setup Mike
Reilly on the power-play at 17:34 to close out the scoring and giving
the Vees a 8-3 victory.
Penticton outshot Westside 31-29
The Hardest Working Vee: Chad Bannor
Stars: 1) Mario Lucia 2) Connor Reilly 3) Garrett Hendrickson
On Saturday, back home at the SOEC, The Vees and Vernon Vipers squared
off for a battle for first place in the Interior Conference.
Last year the Vees didn’t record a victory against their long-time
rivals, but it didn’t take long to buck the trend this season.
Curtis Loik coming off a strong performance against Westside opened
the scoring at 2:26 of the first period when he finished his own
rebound for his second of the year.
The Vees added one more goal before the period concluded; Grant
Nicholson tipped a Mike Reilly point shot to give the home side a 2-0
lead at 8:12.
Vernon struck early in the second when rookie Adam Tamellini finished
a nice individual rush to score just 2:09 in the second period.
The short one goal lead didn’t last long however, as Steven Fogarty
scored a beautiful power-play goal to restore the two goal lead.
Fogarty walked the left goal-line and snapped a short side shot above
the glove of Kirby Halcrow at 8:26.
Like the second, the Vipers scored an early third period goal to once
again cut the Vees lead to one goal. Aaron Hadley found a bouncing
puck in front of the Vees net and made no mistake finding the back of
the net at 5:14.
However that’s as close as the Vipers would come. Penticton restored
the two goal lead at 7:14 when Zach Urban found a loose puck and an
open net after a scramble in the Vernon crease.
Penticton added two more goals for good measure in the final frame.
Mario Lucia scored on the power-play 1:12 after Urban’s marker. With
the goal, Lucia has extended his goal scoring streak to six games.
Curtis Loik, who opened the scoring, finished the scoring with a
short-handed empty-net goal at 18:54 to seal a 6-2 victory for
Penticton and first place in the Interior Conference.
Shots: 30-25 Vees
Hardest Working Vee: Nick Buchanan
Stars: 1) Curtis Loik 2) Mario Lucia 3) Zach Urban
The Vees record now sitsn at 7-1-0-1 and first place in the Interior
Conference. The Vees are next in action on Wednesday, October 21st
when the pay a visit to the Trail Smoke Eaters; game time is 7:30pm.
