Vees down Merritt in OT

Penticton rallies to stay unbeaten after 8 games

The Penticton Vees pulled off a memorable Friday the 13th comeback in Merritt to extend their unbeaten streak to open the BCHL season to eight games.

Grant Cruikshank scored at 1:05 of overtime after defenceman Jonny Tychonick scored twice in the last 4:46 to tie the game as the Vees stunned the Merritt Centennials 3-2 at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.

The Vees improved to 7-0-0-1 on the season and will look to kept it going as they host the Victoria Grizzlies tonight at 6 p.m. at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

Colten Gerlib and Rylan Van Unen scored for the Centennials (3-7-2-0). Nolan Hildebrand, getting the start after Adam Scheel started the previous four games, made 23 stops for the Vees.

Jacob Berger, who frustrated the Vees until the late rally, made 41 saves to help his team at least salvage one point.

The Vees carried the play for the most part in a ragged and scoreless first period.

Penticton kept coming in the second, outshooting Merritt 9-1 before defenceman Gerlib bagged his first of the season against the run of play at 11:38.

Van Unen upped the count to 2-0 as he kept it himself on a 2-on-1 break and beat Hildebrand with a high shot at 9:01 of the third.

But the highly-touted 17-year-old blueliner Tychonick rode to the Vees’ rescue. His blast from the point glanced off a defender and over Berger’s glove at 15:14 to make it 2-1.

The Vees had a Nicky Leivermann goal waved off for incidental contact with the goaltender a minute later.

But the Vees got on a power play thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct call against Berger, and Tychonick’s point blast got by the veteran netminder to tie the game at 17:33.

Overtime ended quickly as Leivermann teed up Cruikshank for a blast from the right circle over Berger’s glove.

Berger, Tychonick and Cruikshank were the three stars.

Vipers 4 Clippers 1: Goals by Connor Marritt, Chris Jandric, Shane Kelly and Jordan Sandhu propelled Vernon to a home-ice victory over Nanaimo.

Vincent Mallette scored for the Clippers, who had a 28-27 edge in shots on goal. The Vipers improved to 8-3-0-2 and remain at home to take on the Powell River Kings tonight at 6 p.m. at Kal Tire Place. Nanaimo fell to 5-5-0-1.