Vees have time to prepare
Next up are Smokies; Game 1 is March 16
The Penticton Vees know they’ll need to elevate their play as they prepare for a BCHL second-round playoff series against the Trail Smoke Eaters that starts next Friday at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Both teams cruised to four-game sweeps in their respective firstround series and will be meeting in the post-season for the first time since 2005.
How long ago was that? It was three seasons before Vees president, GM and head coach Fred Harbinson arrived in Penticton.
“It’s going to be a really exciting matchup in so many ways,” said Harbinson. “Trail has been a great story with new ownership, an extremely talented team and big crowds now at the (Cominco Arena). The atmosphere is going to be electric in both buildings.”
The atmosphere was anything but in Coquitlam, where sparse crowds watched the Vees dust off the Express 7-2 and 2-1 in Games 3 and 4. The Vees were heavily favoured after finishing 51 points ahead of Coquitlam in the regular season.
“When everyone expects you to win, it’s never easy,” said Harbinson. “Games 2 and 3 were lopsided wins, but the first and fourth games were battles right to the end. We get a clear goal (by Lukas Sillinger) disallowed in Game 4, their goalie makes 57 saves and it takes a gritty play there by (Massimo) Rizzo there to set up (Taylor) Ward for the winning goal.”
The best news coming out of the series is standout rookie blueliner Nicky Leivermann wasn’t seriously injured. He was stretchered off the ice after being pushed head-first into the boards in Game 3.
Harbinson said with 10 days between the incident and the start of Round 2 against Trail, he is hopeful Leivermann will be ready.
“It sure could have been a lot worse,” said Harbinson. “It was a dangerous, scary play. You just hate to see those things happen. (But) kudos to the off-ice crews in Coquitlam for handling the situation so well.”
Harbinson said it is “too early” to tell when Leivermann might return to practice. The Vees will practice today and Saturday and take Sunday off before getting back to their regular routine on Monday.
Forward Ryan Sandelin (upperbody) has been practising with the team after getting injured late in the regular season but is yet to be cleared for contact.
“He’s very close to being available,” said Harbinson. “He’ll need to be patient in terms of getting back in the lineup. When his chance comes, he’ll have to be ready.”
All four first-round matchups in the Interior ended in sweeps, setting up Vees-Trail and VernonWenatchee in the semifinals.
“Flip a coin – all four teams have a lot of strengths and probably a few weaknesses,” said Harbinson. “Vernon, Wenatchee and us fought for the President’s Trophy right till the end (of the regular season) and Trail would’ve probably been right there, too, if they hadn’t lost Howarth (star forward Kale) for a month or so. They were sitting first overall for a while there, too.”
The Vees and Trail met six times during the regular season with the Vees winning four games (one in overtime), losing one and tying one, outscoring the Smokies 18-10. In their most recent matchups, the Vees swept a home-and-home Feb. 7 and 9 by scores of 4-1 and 3-0.
“They’re a prolific offensive team, they can score in bunches with a multitude of guys who can put the puck in the net,” he said. “They work really hard and they hunt pucks well. We’re obviously playing a much tougher opponent (than Coquitlam) and we’re going to need to raise our game to a much higher level.”
ICE CHIPS: Trail outscored West Kelowna 23-10 in the first round. Howarth, Ross Armour and Levi Glasman each had seven points in the four games. F Chris Klack and F Wyatt Sloboshan each had six points for the Vees versus Coquitlam … The Vees (40-12-3-3) finished 17 points ahead of Trail (32-21-4-1) in the regular season… Vernon swept Salmon Arm late Wednesday when F Niko Karamanis scored the winner at 3:23 of overtime in a 1-0 triumph.