Vees fall short in Game 1 loss to Chiefs
Chilliwack takes advantage of home ice with 4-2 victory to start league final
The Penticton Vees got a first-hand look at why Jordan Kawaguchi is the runaway scoring leader in the B.C. Hockey League playoffs.
Kawaguchi scored his 13th goal in 17 games and added two assists as the Chilliwack Chiefs beat the Vees 4-2 in the opening game of the Fred Page Cup final Friday at Prospera Centre in Chilliwack.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series goes tonight at 7 p.m. in Chilliwack before the scene shifts to Penticton for Games 3 and 4 Tuesday and Wednesday.
Kawaguchi, a 1997-born forward bound for the University of North Dakota next season, has 31 points in the playoffs. Kohen Olischefski had a goal and an assist and is second with 19 points, while Anthony Vincent and Jake Smith also scored for the Chiefs.
Griffin Mendel and captain Nicholas Jones scored for the Vees, who have lost three straight playoff games on the road by a combined score of 12-3.
Mark Sinclair made 36 saves for the Chiefs and Mat Robson had 34 stops for the Vees.
The Vees got off to a perfect start just 90 seconds in. Cassidy Bowes and Owen Sillinger combined to get the puck to Mendel, who walked in off the point and ripped a low blast past Sinclair on the glove side.
The Chiefs ramped up the physical play and tied the game at 3:53 as Olischefski got his ninth of the playoffs on a rebound from Smith and Linden Hora. Penticton got caught with a tired group on the ice after an icing call and Vincent was presented with an easy tap-in off the faceoff with Olischefski and Kawaguchi assisting at 9:30.
It was all Penticton through most of the second period, but the Chiefs were awarded the game’s first power play with 3:46 left. Just 24 seconds later, Smith knocked a rebound into the open side after Robson stopped a hard shot by Kawaguchi.
The Vees got their first power play with 1:23 left in the period but couldn’t generate much.
Midway through the third period, Vees defenceman Gabe Bast was denied by Sinclair on a clear breakaway.
Then, off a faceoff and a turnover, the Vees suddenly got right back in the game. Chris Klack stole the puck and got it to Jones, who quickly one-timed his team-leading eighth of the post-season past Sinclair and just under the crossbar at 12:37.
Robson was called on to make a series of huge saves late to keep the Vees within one, but he was helpless to stop Kawaguchi from in close at 17:58 after a dreadful unforced turnover by the Vees in their own zone.
ICE CHIPS: Sinclair, Smith and Mendel were the three stars . . . . Attendance was 2,577 . . . . Vees GM and head coach Fred Harbinson tweaked the forward lines for Game 1, scratching regulars Matt Gosiewski and Turner Ripplinger, and inserting rookies Bowes and 15-year-old Massimo Risso. The Vees also got F Chris Klack after he was suspended for Game 7 against Vernon.