Vees take opening two games at home
Penticton Vees win a pair of 4-3 games at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Now, they’ll try to win the series on Vancouver Island
It’s like 2022 all over again.
With a 2-0 series lead, the Penticton Vees are heading to Vancouver Island with a shot at clinching the B.C. Hockey League playoff championship for a second consecutive season.
This year it’s the Alberni Valley Bulldogs who are on the ropes after falling in Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-seven series this past weekend at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Penticton won both contests by identical scores of 4-3.
Friday’s match saw Nic DeGraves open the scoring for the Vees just 35 seconds after the puck dropped. Josh Nadeau, Mason Poolman and Thomas Pichette extended the Vees’ lead to 4-2 after the second period.
Alberni Valley made it 4-3 about midway through the final frame, but couldn’t get any closer.
Nicholas Beneteau, with two, and Matthew
Maltais scored for the Bulldogs. Shots were tied 3636.
Saturday’s contest started much the same, with Brett Moravec drawing first blood for the Vees about three minutes in. Alberni Valley responded with a pair, after which the Vees did the same to take a 3-2 lead into the first intermission.
The teams exchanged goals in the third period to push the score to 4-3.
With just under seven minutes remaining, the Bulldogs appeared to tie the game out of a scramble in front of the net, but the goal was called back after video review.
Shots were 39-18 in favour of Penticton. Brandon Burh, Ethan Bono and Beneteau scored for the Bulldogs.
Luca Di Pasquo picked up both wins in net for the Vees, while his Bulldogs counterpart Campbell Arnold absorbed both losses. Di Pasquo leads all BCHL playoff goalies with a 1.99 goals-against average and is tied for third with a 0.923 save percentage.
Meanwhile, Vees teammates and brothers Bradly and Josh Nadeau are tied atop the playoff scoring race with 32 points apiece.
Bulldogs teammates Dakota MacIntosh and Brandon Burh are tied for second with 23 points each, and Vees teammates Aydar Suniev and Dovar Tinling are tied for third with 18 apiece.
Game 3 was on Tuesday and Game 4 is tonight in Alberni Valley. Game 5, if necessary, is Saturday in Penticton.
It was on May 18, 2022, the Vees defeated the Nanaimo Clippers in four games straight to win the Fred Page Cup as BCHL playoff champions. Penticton is looking to repeat for the first time since 1986-85.