The British Columbia Hockey League's Penticton Vees are primed for the regular season after a winning the Mountain FM `Ashes’ Pre-Season Tournament in Trail on Saturday. For the second straight pre-season the Vees went undefeated in the three-game round robin.
The Vees came back to beat Powell River 3-2 in overtime on Thursday, spanked the Brooks Bandits of the AJHL 6-2 on Friday, and closed out the tournament with a roller coaster 5-4 win over the host Trail Smoke Eaters on Saturday.
Entering the final game of the three-day event the Vees and Smokies were each undefeated at with a pair of wins, with the championship on the line on Saturday afternoon. After grabbing a 3-0 lead midway through the second period, the Vees appeared to be coasting to victory, only to watch the Smokies mount a rally that saw them ring up four consecutive goals to grab the lead in the third.
Joey Holka played the hero in the final frame, scoring the game-tying and game-winning goals less than three minutes apart. After Garrett Milan made a great play to set up Holka at 14:09 to tie the game, Brendan O’Donnell then went end-to-end before dishing to Holka who buried the difference maker at 16:56 of the third period.
“It’s good to get the three wins here and get a little bit of momentum going into the regular season,” said Holka after the win.
Joel Rumpel earned his second victory of the pre-season making 40 saves on 44 shots, while Billy Faust was impressive against Brooks where he stopped 37 of 39 threats directed his way to earn a `W’.
On Friday night, Stefan Nicholishen and Joey LaLeggia each potted a pair of goals in the win over Brooks. Each is heading into their second BCHL season, and will be looked to for offense this season. Vees new 20-year-old Captain Derik Johnson showed a new offensive angle to his game this weekend, highlighted by his three-point effort on Thursday against Powell River. The 3rd year BCHL vet scored both regulation goals for the Vees before helping set up Joey Benik who scored the winner that ended the game against the reigning back-to-back Coastal Conference Champions.
The Vees' brass now has to make the difficult decisions that will whittle the roster down to the league maximum of 23 players. Head Coach and GM Fred Harbinson is hoping to have his team down to number sooner rather than later in the week with the regular season opening on Friday.
The Vees will open the 2010/2011 campaign with a home-and-home battle with the Westside Warriors, who had their season ended by the Vees in Game 6 of the Interior Conference Semi-Finals last Spring. Friday sees the Vees visit the Warriors at Royal LePage Place, before the playing host at the SOEC on Saturday.
