Vees open Showcase with victory
The Penticton Vees once again made themselves right at home Thursday at the Bauer BCHL Showcase Tournament at Prospera Centre in Chilliwack.
David Silye scored twice, Lukas Sillinger connect justed 22 seconds into the game and the Vees never looked back in beating the Surrey Eagles 4-1 for their 13th victory in as many outings in the seven-year history of the Showcase.
Getting the early goal was vital in the 10 a.m. curtain-raiser for the fourday Showcase, which sees all 17 BCHL teams play two non-divisional games that count in the standings in front of scouts and college recruiters.
Sillinger knocked home a rebound of Mason Snell’s point shot and the Vees were off and running.
“It wasn’t just that it was a quick goal, it was that it was a textbook goal from our own end and through the neutral zone that we’d worked on so much in practice,” said Vees GM/head coach Fred Harbinson. “We had a real solid first period and overall we were much more disciplined in all three zones . . . like night-and-day going back to that first game of the season (against Langley).”
Stalwart defenceman Kenny Johnson scored just his fourth goal in 105 regularseason games with the Vees (2-2-0), while Eric Linell spoiled Jack LaFontaine’s shutout bid early in the third period.
LaFontaine made 31 saves, while Bailey Cayden stopped 23 shots for the struggling Eagles (0-5-0).
The Vees led 2-0 after each of the first two periods.
With a sparse crowd just settling into their seats, Snell set up Sillinger for his second of the season. Sillinger’s line with Silye and Ryan Sandelin was hot once again and accounted for three of the Vees’ four goals.
“It’s never easy playing first thing in the morning like that with a smaller crowd, but that goal created a lot of energy on Harbinson said Muzyka will be the ice and on the bench,” said fine but felt it was a “very dirty Harbinson. play” by Feldman.
Johnson’s long wrister glanced “I’m not inside the player’s head, in off a Surrey defender in front of but you can’t condone that kind of the net to make it 2-0 at 10:53. thing,” said Harbinson. “Things do Sammy Steele and Ryan Miotto happen in the heat of the moment. assisted for their first points as We’ll just let the league take care members of the Vees. of what happens from there.”
“That line was 10 times better The Vees will look to make it than they were in the previous Harbinson 14 straight wins at the Showcase games,” said Harbinson. “Steele and Miotto and try to get over .500 for the first time this played the heavier type of game we need season as they take on the Prince George them to play, (Cole) Shepard was good with Spruce Kings today at 4 p.m. the puck and they spent a lot of time in the The Spruce Kings (4-1-0) were undefeated offensive zone.” until falling 4-0 to the West Kelowna
It stayed 2-0 until Linell got the Eagles on Warriors in their opener at the Showcase the board six seconds after a power play on Friday. expired, 1:50 into the third period. “It’s an older, more experienced team that
LaFontaine had no chance on the back-door plays with a lot of structure,” Harbinson tap-in. said of the Spruce Kings. “We’ll see if we
“He battled real hard and fought for pucks can put together two strong games back-toback.” around the net,” Harbinson said of the veteran netminder. “They didn’t have a ton of chances, but a team with that kind of skill is always going to have some pushes.”
The game was chippy at times in the third period. Vees forward Luke Loheit fought Surrey’s Cody Schiavon after a hard hit on Vees forward Drew Elser in the corner.
With the teams skating four-a-side, Silye slipped one through the five-hole from James Miller to make it 3-1 for Penticton at 7:53.
Surrey had a power play and also pulled their goaltender with 3:10 to go to make it a 6-on-4, but Silye drained a shorthanded empty-net goal from Sillinger to seal the deal at 17:26.
Seconds after player resumed, Surrey’s Samuel Feldman was banished with a major for a nasty-looking checking-frombehind infraction on Vees blueliner Peter Muzyka.
WARRIORS 4 SPRUCE KINGS 0
Mike Hardman scored twice and Connor Hopkins made 21 saves for his first BCHL shutout as West Kelowna blanked Prince George.
Mason Richey and Max Bulawka also scored for the Warriors (2-3-0), who led 1-0 and 4-0 at the period breaks.
The Warriors, who directed 36 shots at two Prince George goalies, play their last game at the Showcase today at 1 p.m. against the Nanaimo Clippers, while the Vernon Vipers face Surrey on Saturday.