vees:blog

Not much rust on the Vees. That’s the consensus after a 3-1 Vees victory over the Victoria Grizzlies in Penticton’s first game since October 10th.

The Vees opened their four-game Island road swing with a win in the provincial capital on Wednesday and in the process closed out the first quarter of the season with a sparkling record of 12-2-0-1.

Denver Manderson recorded his 13th goal of the season, set up by a nifty play from Beau Bennett as the Vees opened the scoring 4-on-4. Just eight seconds later, still 4-on-4, Garrett Milan made it 2-0 with his tenth of the season, when Jake Johnson spotted him alone in front. Johnson now has 3 points in as many games for the Vees since arriving from the USHL.

Alex Szczechura continues his strong rookie campaign as the 19-year-old added his eighth goal of the year to put the Vees up 3-1. Beau Bennett, Byron Sorensen, Joey Holka, Jake Johnson and Isaac MacLeod all had an assist in the game.

Sean Bonar allowed a single goal as the Vees continued their stingy defensive play in October. The team has allowed just six goals in six games in the Halloween month. Bonar now has nine wins on the year and lowered his goals against average to 2.11 while boosting his save percentage to .930

Brandon Fagerheim and Wesley Myron had assists on captain Jordan Heywood’s goal in the loss for the hosts. Richard Virtanen made 28 saves on 31 shots, and absorbed his fifth loss of the season.

Neither team scored on the power play as the Vees killed three penalties and the Grizzlies killed four. The Vees haven’t allowed a power play goal against since September 29th in Merritt.

The Vees now sit in second in the Interior Conference five points behind the Vernon Vipers with a game in hand. The two Okanagan teams have the top two records in The BCHL and are both ranked in the top 4 in the country.

Next Vees action comes from Cowichan Valley on Friday night at 7:30 when they face Capitals in the first of three games in 24 hours. The Pre-game show starts at 7:15 on EZ Rock AM 800, and myezrock.com