Vees win, Vipers lose
Captain Owen Sillinger and the Penticton Vees stayed on course for a seventh straight Interior Division pennant.
Sillinger scored his team-leading 30th of the season and added an assist as the visiting Vees beat the Coquitlam Express 5-1 on Friday to complete a home-and-home series sweep.
Nicky Leivermann, Lukas Sillinger, Cassidy Bowes and Taylor Ward also scored for the Vees (37-11-2-3), who led 2-0 and 5-0 at the period breaks.
Jack MacNab spoiled Adam Scheel’s shutout bid with 1:12 left in the game for Coquitlam (14-37-1-3). Scheel made 15 saves for the win, while the Vees had 31 shots on goal.
The Vees moved four points ahead of the Vernon Vipers, who lost 2-1 in Powell River. The Wenatchee Wild moved into a tie for second place with Vernon by beating the visiting Trail Smoke Eaters 5-2.
The Vees have five games left and Vernon and Wenatchee each have four. Wenatchee hosts Trail again tonight.
Despite losing their seventh straight game, there was a silver lining for lowly Coquitlam, who clinched the final BCHL playoff berth after the Cowichan Valley Capitals lost their 11th straight game, 7-1 in Nanaimo.
Coquitlam will shift to the Interior Division for the playoffs as the No. 8 seed and would play Penticton if the season ended today.
The Express would appear to be in tough after getting outscored 12-2 by the Vees in the two games this week.
Leivermann put the Vees up to stay on a power play at 8:49 of the first. Dakota Boutin returned from an upper-body injury to assist on the goal along with Bowes.
Lukas Sillinger ended a 23-game drought with an unassisted goal at 16:13.
In the second period, Bowes at 5:03 and then Ward on another power play at 13:39 made it 4-0 and briefly chased starter Brock Hamm from the game.
Clay Stevenson replaced Hamm, made a terrific save on an odd-man rush, but Hamm returned to the Express net 2:03 later.
Owen Sillinger made it 5-0 with a shorthanded goal on a nice feed from Chris Klack at 18:04.
MacNab kept Scheel from getting his fourth shutout at 18:48 of the third period.
The Vees continue a three-game weekend road trip by taking on the Langley Rivermen tonight at 7 p.m. and the Surrey Eagles on Sunday at 4 p.m.
Kings 2 Vipers 1: Ben Berard scored twice and rookie Derek Krall made 46 saves as Powell River (28-16-6-4) held off visiting Vernon.
Jimmy Lambert scored in the third period for Vernon (35-14-1-4). Ty Taylor stopped 24 shots for the Vipers. Vernon continues its Island road trip tonight at Cowichan Valley, while the West Kelowna Warriors host the Victoria Grizzlies, 7 p.m. at Royal LePage Place.