Vees happy to regain home-ice advantage
Penticton holds edge with series tied after splitting games in Vernon
Despite falling 3-0 in Game 4, it was largely “mission accomplished” for the Penticton Vees this week in Vernon. The Vees and Vernon Vipers are knotted at 2-2 in the best-of-seven BCHL Interior Division championship series heading for Game 5 Friday at 7 p.m. at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
“We wanted to get the home-ice advantage back and we did,” said Vees president, GM and head coach Fred Harbinson.
“We’ve been a lot better at home in this series and we’ll need to come out with a complete, 60-minute effort on Friday. It’s down to a best-of-three . . . the series really starts now. Hopefully we get another great crowd out to support us.”
The Vernon win on Tuesday guaranteed the series will return to Kal Tire Place for Game 6 on Saturday at 7 p.m. Game 7, if necessary, would go Monday at 7 p.m. at the SOEC.
“We had parts of the two games in Vernon where we played really well and some where we didn’t,” said Harbinson. “We had a real good push in the third period (in Game 4) but we need to find a way to score.”
The Vees power play was terrific in the prior four playoff games before coming up empty in five chances in Game 4. “We had some great looks on the power play,” said Harbinson. “If we finish a few of those great chances we had near the end of the second period it would have made for a real interesting third.” The Vipers, as expected, have played physical and chippy, frequently pushing the envelope where the rulebook is concerned. “We’ve got a heavy team that can play that style when we have to,” said Harbinson. “It’s important when they get running around to move our feet, move the puck quickly and make them pay on our power plays.”
Harbinson acknowledged the first Vernon goal in Game 4 was one Mat Robson would like to have back. Compounding the matter is the fact the team scoring first has won every game in the series.
“It kind of gave them the life they needed,” said Harbinson. “Obviously that was a tough one but (Robson) has played really well otherwise. He’s been there for us all season and he’ll be ready on Friday.”
The series couldn’t be much tighter heading into Game 5. Each team has scored 10 goals and each team has one empty-net goal. Shots on goal and scoring chances have also been close.
“It’s pretty much been what a lot of people expected,” said Harbinson. “We’ve got the home-ice edge back and we’ve just got to take advantage of it.”