Vees gut out win over league’s best
WORLD SERIES
Fred Harbinson lauded his Penticton Vees for a “gutty” performance with a short bench against the B.C. Hockey League’s top team.
Brendan Harrogate scored twice and added an assist as the Vees trimmed the Chilliwack Chiefs 5-2 in front of 3,078 appreciative fans Saturday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
“We were basically going with nine forwards and five defencemen and we had to kill a lot of penalties,” said the Vees GM/head coach. “It wasn’t like we were undisciplined or anything ... it just happens sometimes.”
The Vees (8-5-0-1) were already shortstaffed when they lost a 3-2 heartbreaker Friday in West Kelowna. They lost forward Matthew Byrne (hip) early in that game and then had defenceman Kenny Johnson get a gross misconduct and three-suspension for throwing a roll of tape into the stands at the end of the game at Royal LePage Place.
“We played really hard the whole weekend, put 52 shots on net and lost (in West Kelowna) and finally got rewarded for our efforts against Chilliwack,” said Harbinson.
Harbinson said the Vees “managed” the game well against the high-powered Chiefs, opening up period leads of 1-0 and 2-0 while limiting the visitors to few quality scoring chances.
“The five D-men did a great job of moving the puck quickly out of our zone,” said Harbinson. “The only time we were in our own end was when they had power plays.”
Jack Barnes scored in the first period and hit a post a few minutes later, Harrogate scored in the second, and Ryan Sandelin, Andre Ghantous and Harrogate with his second goal into an empty net with 17 seconds left connected in the third for the Vees.
Eric Linell and defenceman Connor Hutchinson each had two assists.
“Linell was outstanding the entire weekend,” said Harbinson, noting the speedy winger scored twice in West Kelowna.
“He just does a bit of everything. He’s always noticeable … just has so much energy.”
Harrison Blaisdell and Brett Willits scored third-period power play goals for the Chiefs (13-5-0), who went 2-for-8 with the man advantage. The Vees were 0-for-4.
The Vees outshot the Chiefs 30-24, including 11-3 in the first period. Jack LaFontaine got the win while Mathieu Caron – who has played all but 13 minutes for the Chiefs this season – took the loss.
The Vees did call up affiliated player Liam Noble to give them one more body up front.
“He only got a couple of shifts ... we wanted to keep the continuity with the lines unless someone else went down,” said Harbinson. “But the kid plays two shifts, blocks a shot, finishes a check and creates a scoring chance. You need those kind of contributions to win a game.”
Losing Johnson for three games was a big hit since the Vees only have six defencemen on the roster.
After the game in West Kelowna appeared to have ended, the teams were called back to the ice as the officials deemed there was still 0.5 seconds on the clock.
“There was a few-minute delay there and the fans behind our bench got pretty obnoxious,” said Harbinson. “They had a megaphone thing going and they made some crude comments to Kenny about his family. He got frustrated and threw a role of tape into the stands.”
Harbinson apologized to the Warriors for what transpired.
“We don’t condone that kind of thing and Kenny feels really bad about it,” said Harbinson. “Some things were said there that were very off-colour. He’ll serve his suspension and will be back in the lineup on Saturday. We fully support Kenny.”
The Vees face the surprising Coquitlam Express Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the SOEC, travel to Merritt to face the Interior-Division leading Centennials on Friday, and host West Kelowna Saturday at 6 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Linell, Sandelin and Harrogate were the three stars … Vees captain/centre Massimo Rizzo (lower back), expected to make his season debut Wednesday versus Coquitlam, came down with a bad flu bug and will likely instead return on the weekend. F Luke Loheit (mononucleosis) is also expected to be back in the lineup on the weekend. Byrne, meanwhile, will be evaluated today and is currently listed as day-to-day with the hip ailment. F Lukas Sillinger (finger) and F Drew Elser (jaw, concussion) remain out indefinitely.