Vees expect huge crowd Saturday when Wenatchee visits

Fans of the Penticton Vees and a visit from the Wenatchee Wild apparently is a good combination.

The league-leading Wild (38-8-40) visit the third-place Vees (35-122-1) on Saturday (6 p.m.) for their lone stop in Penticton this regular season, and Penticton general manager/coach Fred Harbinson said late Wednesday that he expects a crowd of over 4,000 to the South Okanagan Events Centre. Listed capacity for the venue is 4,701.

The BCHL doesn’t announce all of its attendance figures.

The single-game high for this season in the Junior A loop so far is the 3,725 that came to the Prospera Centre to watch the host Chilliwack Chiefs down the Langley Rivermen 8-1 on Jan. 7. The majority of the teams in the 17-club loop average under 1,500 fans for their home games.

Saturday will mark the ninth time that the Vees have broken the 3,000 plateau this season, with the current high a 3,314 crowd that took in a 3-2 win over the Prince George Spruce Kings on Nov. 5.

“We take our home record very seriously,” said Harbinson. “We feel we have some of the most passionate fans in all of junior hockey. We owe it to the Vees’ faithful to bring an honest effort every time we step on the SOEC ice.

“Getting over 10 per cent of our population at our games shows our players how much the team means to the community.”

Wenatchee, the team from north central Washington state that is in its second year in the BCHL after moving from the North American Hockey League, has the league’s top scorer in Brendan Harris (85 points, including 21 goals, in 50 games), as well as its top power play (25.8 per cent) and its top penalty killing (85.5). They’ve scored the most goals (252, followed by the Powell River Kings at 222) in the circuit and they’ve allowed the second fewest (122, trailing only the 117 permitted by the Vees).

The Wild have outscored their opponents by 130 goals, which is almost better than the next two top differentials combined (Victoria Grizzlies at 72 and Chilliwack Chiefs at 71).

Penticton, meanwhile, has won three of four (3-0-1-0) in February so far after going winless in their last four (0-3-0-1) in January. They allowed 17 goals in those four games.

The BCHL regular season ends Feb. 26.

The Vees were the regular-season league champions in 2015-16, but were upset by the West Kelowna Warriors in the second round of the playoffs. The Wild were beaten in that round by the Chiefs. The Warriors went on to win the Royal Bank Cup national title.