Balanced attack puts Vees up 2-0 in championship chase
Three players who combined for just 18 goals during the regular season provided all the offence the Penticton Vees needed on Saturday night as the club took a 2-0 lead over the Nanaimo Clippers in the B.C. Hockey League playoff championship series.
Ahead of the showdown, with both teams carrying identical 12-game winning streaks, Vees coach Fred Harbinson suggested his club’s depth would be a difference maker. He was right.
“To win championships, over my whole career as a player and as a coach, when you look back there’s always guys who step up at the right time and it’s not always just your leading scorer,” said Harbinson.
The guys who stepped up in the Vees’ 3-1 win on Saturday, which saw Penticton outshoot Nanaimo 31-19, were Beanie Richter, Owen Simpson and Jackson Nieuwendyk.
Simpson, who’s first BCHL playoff goal was also the eventual game winner near the midway mark of the third period, notched just four goals in the regular season. Richter, who has three goals in the playoffs, scored just five times in the regular season, while Nieuwendyk, with eight playoff goals, is only one away from matching his regular season total.
“All three of them didn’t have huge offensive output in the regular season, but sure bring it and all three of them have elevated themselves in the post-season,” Harbinson said.
Game 1 on Friday, which the Vees won 4-1, saw the club get goals from usual suspects like Casey McDonald, Ryan Hopkins, Luc Wilson and Bradley Nadeau. Penticton outshot Nanaimo 40-20 in front of 4,459 fans at South Okanagan Events Centre.
Vees netminder Kaeden Lane started both contests and is now on a 14-game playoff winning streak, while Clippers’ goalie Cooper Black has been saddled with a twogame losing skid.
The best-of-seven series now shifts to Nanaimo for Game 3 tonight and Game 4 on Wednesday night. Game 5, if necessary, is back at the SOEC on Friday night.
The Vees left for Nanaimo on Monday morning and are scheduled to catch a ferry back to the mainland on Thursday morning.
“Like the old saying goes: ‘The series doesn’t start until you win one on the road.’ Well, now we’ve got to go win one on the road,” said Harbinson.
“I expect a (Clippers) team that’s going to be very desperate. I don’t think they’ve lost three in a row all year.”
The Vees, meanwhile, will stick with what works.
“We want to play the right way and give ourselves a chance to win and not give anything away. If we play our best and they beat us, then we’ve got to get up, dust ourselves off and get ready to go again. If we come back with a championship, outstanding. If we come back where we’re tied or we’re up 3-1, whatever,” said Harbinson.
“We talked about this until we were blue in the face before the playoffs started that it’s the first one to four (wins). It doesn’t really matter how you get there, you just have to get there.”