The Penticton Vees got off to dominating start in the Western Canada Cup as they crushed the Spruce Grove Saints 11-3 at the Casman Centre in Fort McMurray Saturday.
“We played with energy and our transition game was spot on,” said Vees coach-general manager Fred Harbinson. “We got them down and kind of smelled blood and went for it.”
Tyson Jost was named most valuable player for the Vees with a three-goal four-point performance. The Vees opened the scoring 19 seconds into the game as Gabe Bast set up Riley Alferd. Thirty-one seconds later, Connor Chartier gave the Vees a 2-0 lead on a play set up by Dakota Conroy and Steen Cooper. The Vees extended their lead to 3-0 as Lewis Zerter-Gosssage and Patrick Newell fed Demico Hannoun. At 7:12 Cooper scored the eventual winning goal with assists going to Chartier and Miles Gendron. Jost’s first goal came at 14:42 as the Vees headed into the dressing room with a 5-0 lead.
In the second period the Vees offence continued to roll with goals by Conroy, Jost and Bast on the power play and Matthew Serratore. Saints goalie Brett Zarowny was chased after allowing seven goals on 20 shots.
In the final frame, 17 seconds in, Alferd scored his second goal to make it 10-0. The Saints finally got on the scoreboard on a goal by Lukas Biensch at 8:34. The Saints scored two more times on tallies by Austin Hunter and Carson Samoridny, named the Saints’ most valuable player, finishing with two points. Jost added the final goal at 18:42. In relief, Matthew Murray made eight saves on 12 shots, while Hunter Miska turned aside 25 shots for the win.
With the performance the Vees had, Harbinson said it would be hard to blame his players with the Saints getting three goals, especially with the game out of hand with a lead of 10-0. However, Harbinson assured that the Saints will get back into the tournament.
“They are a better team than they showed,” he said, adding that things just snowballed for them.
Harbinson said his players got off to a strong because they “know what’s at stake.”
Both teams power-play executed at 50 per cent, the Vees going two-for-four and the Saints one-for-two.
Bast finished with five points, Cooper three, and two-point efforts by Gendron, Newell, Chartier, Conroy and Alferd.
The Vees next game is Sunday at 6:30 p.m. PST against the host Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
