Penticton holds firm at No. 11 in weekly rankings

The Penticton Vees held firm at No. 11 but there was plenty of movement at the top of the Canadian Junior Hockey League weekly rankings.

The Georgetown Raiders (Ontario league), riding a six-game winning streak, surged five spots to No. 1, while the Brooks Bandits (Alberta league) continued their ascent moving up one spot to No. 2. Brooks has now won 11 straight contests.

Collège Français de Longueuil, which had a lengthy run at No. 1, dropped to No. 3 but still has 31 wins in 35 games to lead the Quebec league.

Powassan Voodoos (Northern Ontario league) dropped two spots to No. 4 and Steinbach Pistons (Manitoba) league are down one spot to round out the top five.

The Wenatchee Wild is the top BCHL team, though they dropped one spot to No. 9, while the surging Chilliwack Chiefs slipped back into the rankings at No. 20.

Wenatchee and the Vees became the first two BCHL clubs to nail down playoff spots, while Chilliwack needs just one more point to clinch a berth.

The Vees clinched by virtue of the Surrey Eagles’ humiliating 19-3 loss to the Trail Smoke Eaters on Saturday.

Surrey is 32 points behind the Vees with 15 games remaining on their schedule.

Surrey is five points behind Interior Division cellar dwellers Salmon Arm for the Mainland/Interior crossover playoff berth.

More significantly, the Vees are 12 points ahead of the Vernon Vipers as they look to win a sixth straight Interior Division pennant. The Vees (31-9-1) have 17 games left and Vernon 16. The Vees don’t play until Saturday at 6 p.m. at the South Okanagan Events Centre against the West Kelowna Warriors. Penticton has four wins in as many games against their arch-rivals this season.

The Vees also visit the Salmon Arm Silverbacks in a 3 p.m. puck-drop on Sunday.

Vernon hosts Merritt on Wednesday, visits West Kelowna on Friday and hosts Powell River on Saturday.

ICE CHIPS: Vees D Gabe Bast has more two more games left to play with the Junior-B Surrey Knights before being eligible to return to the Vees. The reeling Knights (0-35-0-2), have lost 9-1, 7-0 and 10-0 with Bast in the lineup. The next two games are Thursday at home against Mission City and Saturday at Port Moody . . . . Vees D James Miller (upper-body) is expected to miss at least one more game . . . . West Kelowna (22-180-1) is third in the Interior Division.