The Penticton Vees scored three second period goals and used a 19-save effort from Carl Stankowski to help them to their fourth consecutive victory in a 3-1 triumph over the Langley Rivermen, in front of a crowd of 3,000 people at the South Okanagan Events Centre on Wednesday night.
Both goalies were perfect through the first period. Vees stopper, Carl Stankowski made eight saves, including a couple remarkable ones on Langley players Jake Livingstone and Jonathan Stein. At the other end, Braedon Fleming also made eight saves in the opening period for the Rivermen.
The Vees best opportunity to score in the first period came in the dying moments, when Danny Weight fed a slick pass out front to Tristan Amonte who was robbed by Fleming as he slid across and made a strong blocker save to send the game into the first intermission knotted at zero.
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The Vees eventually opened the scoring at the 13:20 mark of the second period, courtesy of their captain, David Silye.
Silye snapped a shot blocker side on Fleming for his 16th goal of the season, to give Penticton a 1-0 edge.
The Vees second of the game came on the power play, as Lukas Sillinger also potted his 16th on the year, to give Penticton a 2-0 lead.
Liam Malmquist capped off a three-goal period for the Vees with just under three minutes left in the second on Penticton’s second power play marker of the game. Malmquist lasered a shot past Fleming, after taking a nice pass from Nico Somerville, for his 12th goal of the season.
Langley eventually broke the shutout at the 7:56 mark of the third. Tristan Fraser gathered a loose puck after a Vees turnover and sent it towards the crease to Brendan Budy, who flipped a shot passed the blocker of Stankowski.
That was the only blemish for Stankowski, who was terrific, making 19 saves on 20 shots for his eighth victory for the Vees. Meanwhile, Langley’s Braedon Fleming turned aside 29 of the 32 pucks the Vees threw at him.
Captain, Daivd Silye (1 goal, 1 assist), Stankowski, and Tyler Ho (1 assist), were the three stars of the game, while Vees forward Tyler Amonte was named the Fortis Energy Player of the Game.
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The Vees will make their final trip of the regular season to the West Kootenays to face-off against the Trail Smoke Eaters (25-13-2-1-1) on Friday night. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 p.m. at the Trail Memorial Centre with the game being broadcasted on EZ Rock AM 800 as well as HockeyTV.com beginning with the pre-game show at 6:45 p.m. with the Voice of the Vees, Trevor Miller.
The Vees and Smoke Eaters will each be donning jerseys from their World Championships in 1955 and 1961, respectively, and wearing them for each game of the home-and-home set. The World Championship weekend returns to Penticton on Saturday night with a special ceremonial puck drop ahead of the 6:00 p.m. start time. Tickets are available at the Valley First Box Office as well as online at ValleyFirstTix.com.
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