Vees visit Salmon Arm tonight, unbeaten there so far
Penticton has won 4 straight against Silverbacks, including both road games
Pushing to win a seventh straight Interior Division pennant as the BCHL regular season reaches its final week, the Penticton Vees will be hoping to continue their domination of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
The Vees — who have won four straight by a combined score of 19-6 over the Silverbacks this season — visit Shaw Centre tonight in a 7 p.m. puck-drop.
“That’s all in the past now,” said Vees GM and head coach Fred Harbinson. “We’ve got three games to go and this one is first on the list. We’ve got our destiny in our hands (for first place), but you’ve still got to do something with it. Nobody is going to lay down for us. (Salmon Arm) is fighting for position in the standings themselves with Merritt and West Kelowna.”
The Vees (38-12-2-3) have won both prior visits to Salmon Arm this season — 5-1 on Feb. 3 and 6-2 on Sept. 15. The last game was marred by an incident in the last two minutes that irked the Vees as forward Rhett Kingston bowled over Penticton goalie Adam Scheel and knocked him from the game.
Scheel missed one game, has since returned and will be the starter for tonight’s game.
“There’s no time for retribution with three big games to go,” said Harbinson. “There’s way bigger things at stake right now. The best way to settle that score is to win this game.”
Penticton would clinch at least second place in the Interior with a victory in what will be final road game of the regular season. The Vees need three points to clinch first place.
The Vees suffered yet another blow on the weekend as forward Ryan Sandelin suffered an upper-body injury.
“He’ll probably miss the first round of the playoffs,” said Harbinson. “The kid was playing a real good physical game for us. We’ve got a few extra bodies now, so we’ll just have to keep drawing on our depth.” Defenceman Jonny Tychonick is questionable for tonight with an undisclosed illness. The standout blueliner missed the last two games on the weekend.
“We’ll know more (today),” said Harbinson.
Harbinson said the Vees “emptied the tank” to rally in the third period to beat Surrey on Sunday afternoon in the last of three games in less than three days.
“Even though we won, there was hardly a word said on the bus ride home, the guys were so tired,” said Harbinson. “We need to play with that kind of energy (tonight). Play with ‘heart and smart’ is what we like to say.”
Penticton has a two-point lead on Vernon (37-14-1-4) and a four-point edge on Wenatchee (36-14-4-1) in the Interior.
Penticton and Wenatchee each have three games left and Vernon only two. Wenatchee visits the West Kelowna Warriors tonight.
The Vees finish up with home games against Wenatchee on Saturday at 6 p.m. and Salmon Arm on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
The Vees need to win the division outright as they would currently lose the tiebreakers to both the Vipers and the Wild.
The Silverbacks (23-26-3-1) are beginning a challenging test of playing five games in as many nights. That was necessitated because their game scheduled for this past Saturday in Merritt was postponed due to poor highway conditions and moved to this Thursday night.
Salmon Arm is tied for last place in the Interior with Merritt, with the Silverbacks holding a game in hand. Both teams have long since clinched playoff spots.
ICE CHIPS: The Vees’ penalty killing remains No. 1 in the BCHL at 86.4 per cent (32 goals against on 235 chances), while the power play has moved up to third at 21.0 per cent (49 goals on 233 chances).