Travis Nelson played the hero for the Penticton White Kennedy midget Vees as they won the Battle on the Boards tournament.
The 4-3 overtime victory didn’t just come against any team. It came against the Kelowna Rockets who have used this group as a punching bag.
Vees coach Rod MacMurchy knew how important the game was for his players on home ice.
“For sure it was,” he said. “We lost to them earlier in the year 9-1 and 6-0.”
There was also a tournament loss to the Rockets 6-2 in Summerland a few months ago. The Vees were determined to play better.
MacMurchy said Nelson was excited after tying the game with two minutes left then lifting the Vees to victory. It was a huge win against a strong Rockets team. MacMurchy said the win “was kind of a revenge thing,” as he has seen improvement in his group throughout the season.
The Vees opened the tournament with a disappointing 5-3 loss to the Coquitlam Chiefs, then defeated the Grand Forks Border Bruins 11-2, defeated Mission 4-2 and then the Rockets in the final.
Strong goaltending from J.J. Gordon and Johnny Ciardullo helped the Vees.
“Johnny probably had the game of his season playing against Kelowna,” he said. “We were outshot quite a bit. He played awesome. He kept it close to have a chance to come back and win the game.”
With the goal being to win their home tournament, MacMurchy was glad to see it happen, saying it was awesome for his players.
“Highlight of the year so far,” said MacMurchy, whose team is 5-6-2 in league play. Making up the Vees are Gordon and Ciardullo in goal, Jeff Barber, Quinn Harris, Michael Kelly, Gavin Strom, David Johnson Jr., Dakota Treso, Nelson, Jesse Keylock, Michael Crawford, Tyson Klingspon, Felix Bernier and Brad Stel. Affiliate players helping the Vees were Cooper Prechel and Chris Pond.
Hockey snapshots
The Ironman Canada midget Vees improved to 11-0-1 with three victories during the weekend. The last two were against Rossland-Trail 4-1 and 3-1. Scoring for the Vees were Joel Marte with four, Jackson Dematos and Eric Buckley with two each, and Tyler Ehlers, Sam Barker, Ethyn Brown, Liam Neary and Colton Stewart adding singles. Bryson McKinnon picked up two wins and Lawrence Langan picked up the other in goal.
It was a double-header weekend for the Sherwood Sports Vees peewee tier 2 team against Trail. Game one ended in a 2-2 tie with Shane Farkas making 29 saves. Raphael Bassot and Jordan Schulting scored for Penticton. Trail won the second game 5-4, with four of their goals coming from the power play. Scoring for Penticton was Morey Babakaiff, Kiver Heintz, Simon Snyman and affiliate player Cairo Rogers.
The Pacific Rim peewee Vees went 3-1 in their host tournament the weekend of Dec. 5. After defeating Chilliwack 6-3, Merritt 8-3 and Seafair 7-3, the Vees lost their semifinal game to Vernon 8-5.
