The Penticton Vees and Vernon Vipers kick off their second round playoff series Friday at Wesbild Centre.
The Vees are coming off a hard fought battle with the Prince George Spruce Kings that saw the series go all the way to game five.
With a day’s rest they are now going up against the Vipers, who won six, of their eight game regular season series. Penticton stepped it up at the end of the series and took their last season game against the Vipers by a score of 5-3.
“The Vees are a club that are youngest in the league and have the best record in the interior for the last 10 games of the season,” says Vees broadcaster Ryan Pinder.
Penticton was led in points this season by two 1991-born players; Curtis McKenzie and rookie Garrett Milan posted 64 and 57 points respectively.
Pinder warns that although the Vees are coming into the series with momentum, the Vipers may be coming to the series “seeking justice.” The Vipers maybe looking for revenge after the Vees won the Interior Conference during last year’s playoffs and went on to win the Fred Page Cup.
“Vernon has a lot of returning players and the revenge factor working for them,” he added. “They won’t be coming out flat.”
The series starts out in Vernon at a building that the Vees haven’t had much success in this year.
“The Vees haven’t won there yet this season,” said Pinder. “So it might be a mental obstacle.”
While Pinder admits that the Vipers don’t have any glaring weaknesses he thinks the team’s lack of a single star player might be detrimental to the team.
“They don’t have a game-breaker like they did last year with Hunter Bishop,” says Pinder.
He adds that because Vernon is an older team he expects to see a more physical game out of them full of “gritty workman effort.”
