Vees’ win streak will be tested in weekend set

After a terrific first half of the regular season, the Penticton Vees start the second half with back-to-back games against their two biggest rivals.

The Vees (21-5-1-2) are riding an 11-game winning streak as they take on the West Kelowna Warriors tonight at 7 p.m. at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

On Saturday at 6 p.m., the Vees head to Kal Tire Place for a potential first-place showdown with the Vernon Vipers.

“You look at playing West Kelowna again as well as a real good Nanaimo team next weekend, that’s four great opportunities to test ourselves before the (Christmas) break,” said Vees president, GM and head coach Fred Harbinson. “Then we come back and play two games in Wenatchee (Dec. 29-30). Lots of big challenges ahead for us.”

Vernon (21-7-1-4) leads the Vees by two points in both the Interior Division and BCHL overall standings, but the Vees hold four games in hand.

Wenatchee is just two points behind the Vees. Trail has faded badly of late to fourth place at 40 points, while West Kelowna is well entrenched in fifth place with a 17-13-1 record for 35 points.

“West Kelowna always battles us hard,” said Harbinson. “We’re up 3-1 on the season series so if we look at it like a playoff series, this is a chance to put them down.”

The Vees are unbeaten against Vernon with two wins and two ties in four games, including a 4-1 win in their most recent visit to Kal Tire Place Nov. 11.

“It’s the last time we go into their building this season so we need to go in there and push hard for it,” said the coach.

Harbinson said many people were writing off the Vees chances of winning a seventh straight Interior pennant after they lost three consecutive games in early-November.

“When you have games in hand, it’s really closer than it looks if you go out and take care of business,” said Harbinson. “You look at the standings now, we’re one of the teams with a legitimate chance.”

Harbinson was justifiably delighted with the Vees performance in the first 29 games of the 58-game schedule.

“We’ve had a lot of adversity with many of our leaders missing so many games,” said Harbinson. “We’re probably a bit ahead of schedule for me.”

Harbinson stressed the Vees must continue to improve.

“We’ve shown the willingness to compete hard night-in and night out,” said Harbinson. “We’ve just go to keep getting better with our execution of the systems and the fundamentals. We’ve seen a lot of our young guys come a long way since the start of the season.”

Harbinson said he believes the Vees will be a “very tough out” once they have a full lineup. Blueline stalwarts Jonny Tychonick and Ryan O’Connell will miss the last four games before the break as they take part in the World Junior A Challenge, while key veteran forward Chris Klack is a little more than a month away with an upper-body injury.

“We’ve got a lot of depth to our game with four balanced lines, a real good defence corps and two quality goaltenders,” said Harbinson. “When everyone is healthy and available, we’ll have lots of good competition from within. That’s what won us a (BCHL) championship last year.”

The Vees did get defenceman Luke Reid back after he took part in the tryout camp for the Canada West team in Calgary along with Tychonick and O’Connell. The gifted 16-year-old played almost 25 minutes in Wednesday’s 5-1 win over Salmon Arm at the SOEC.

“I talked to some NHL scouts, and of course (assistant coach) Steve Cocker was there for the camp and they all said Reid was outstanding,” said Harbinson. “They were probably looking for a bit more experience but (Reid) is a kid who will go to that team and do great a year from now. He took the whole experience as a positive and came right back here and played a great game for us.

“For us to have five of our regular guys back there compared to four was is a huge difference.”

ICE CHIPS: The Vees called up affiliated player Trevor Isaksson from the Valley West Hawks of the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League to give them a sixth defenceman for the weekend games. Isaksson played for the Vees in Nanaimo and Alberni Valley last weekend… The Vees power play slipped to second in the BCHL at 22 per cent, behind Nanaimo at 22.8 per cent. Penticton’s penalty kill is by far the best in the league at 89.8 per cent.