Despite two power-play goals, the Penticton Vees still came up short Saturday night, losing to the Victoria Grizzlies 4-3.
Cam Thompson opened the scoring for Victoria nearly eight minutes into the game. He took a rink-wide feed from Alex Newhook and fired a shot into the top corner over Derek Krall’s blocker from the left circle. The Grizzlies carried a 1-0 lead into the intermission with the shots 5-4 for Penticton.
Lukas Sillinger tied the game 5:10 into the second off a feed from David Silye, who sent a no-look hook feed to the front of the goal for Sillinger who shovelled it past Kurtis Chapman.
A few minutes later, while on the power play, the Vees took their first lead of the night. After a Mason Snell shot was stopped by Chapman, Luke Loheit dove to jam the puck into the net, ending up in the net himself and scoring his second goal of the season.
The lead lasted less than a minute as Jordan Guiney took a drop feed on the rush and fired a shot past Krall’s blocker to even the game again.
Late in the period the Vees turned the puck over below the goal line. Newhook sent a pass to the front of the net for Riley Hughes who one timed a shot off the post and in to give Victoria the lead heading into the third period.
Thompson added his second off the game off another defensive zone turnover by Penticton, sneaking a shot under the arm of Krall 7:35 into the period.
While on another power play, Ryan Sandelin was the recipient of a perfect stretch pass by James Miller and came in on a breakaway, beating Chapman through the five hole to cut the lead to 4-3 five minutes later.
Penticton had a golden opportunity to tie the game as the Grizzlies were called for a penalty with 1:32 remaining, but even with Krall out for the extra attacker the Vees couldn’t tie the game for the 4-3 final score.
Penticton now gets set for the Bauer BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack playing the Surrey Eagles Thursday. Due to their 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. start times at the Showcase, neither game will be carried on the radio but will still be broadcast on HockeyTV.
