Vees edge Warriors to win home opener
The Penticton Vees raised three banners and then held on to beat the West Kelowna Warriors in their BCHL home opener on Friday at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Dakota Boutin and Grant Cruikshank scored and the Vees dominated for much of the night as they edged the Warriors 2-1 in front of 3,655 fans.
Nicky Leivermann had two assists and the Vees remained the only unbeaten team in the league at 5-0-0.
Chase Dubois scored a late power play goal to spoil Adam Scheel’s bid for his first BCHL shutout. Scheel ended up with 20 saves.
Nik Amundrud made 31 stops for the Warriors (4-3-0).
Prior to the game, the Vees raised the 2016-17 BCHL championship and Interior Division playoff and regular season banners to the rafters and Vancouver singer Mark Donnelly sang O Canada.
The Vees took control from the opening faceoff and registered the first 12 shots on goal before the Warriors finally got their first on a harmless wrist shot from the left point with 3:10 to go in first period.
The Warriors also took a hit 11:18 in as veteran blueliner Jake Harrison was ejected for a marginal checking-from-behind infraction.
Penticton kept coming in the second period and was finally rewarded at 9:02.
Jared Nash patiently lugged the puck down the left side and threw a puck in front that caromed to Boutin. Amundrud made a superb save off Boutin, but the veteran forward was able to slip the puck between the goaltender’s pads from the lip of the crease.
Cruikshank gave the Vees some breathing room on a 4-on-4 with 6:30 to go. Leivermann passed the puck up the middle, Cruikshank tipped it past a defender and raced in to deke Amundrud and slip the puck through the five-hole. Dubois made it an interesting finish by ripping a hard shot from the right circle off the post and in with 1:14 to go.
The Warriors got Amundrud to the bench with a minute to go and Scheel had to make two of his best saves of the night to preserve the win for the Vees.
The Warriors welcome the Chilliwack Chiefs to Royal LePage Place in West Kelowna tonight at 7 p.m., while the Vees are idle until next weekend.
Vipers 5 Grizzlies 2: Tanner Wishnowski logged a goal and an assist and Brett Stapley had three helpers as Vernon opened a three-game weekend road trip by beating Victoria. Jordan Sandhu, Chris Jandric, Josh Prokop and Michael Young scored for Vernon (5-1-1), who led 3-1 and 4-2 at the period breaks. Jandric scored with 25 seconds left in the first and Prokop connected with 20 seconds left in the middle stanza.
Justin Michaelian and Timothy Friedmann replied for Victoria.
Ty Taylor made 22 saves for the Vipers while Zachary Rose stopped 29 shots for the Grizzlies.
Vernon visits the Nanaimo Clippers tonight at 6 p.m. and the Surrey Eagles on Sunday at 4 p.m.
In other finals on Friday, the Wenatchee Wild dismantled visiting Cowichan Valley Capitals 11-1, Salmon Arm topped Coquitlam Express 5-3 at Shaw Centre, Surrey Eagles won 4-1 at home over Prince George Spruce Kings, Alberni Valley Bulldogs edged visiting Nanaimo 5-4 and the Trail Smoke Eaters beat Chilliwack 7-3 at the Cominco Arena.