Rain, rain, rain, power outage, rain, power outage, rain, rain.
Welcome to Powell River, ironically located on the ‘Sunshine Coast’ of BC, where candles line the hallways of the Powell River Town Centre Hotel.
The weather report is pretty soggy here. Unlike most places North of the 49th parallel you might trade in a block heater and a snow shovel for an umbrella and a pair of rain boots in the winter.
Getting games played here in Powell River has been a nightmare in the last week. The locals are getting antsy here after the last two home games have been cancelled due to nutso weather. On Sunday high winds suspended ferry sailings that kept the Nanaimo Clippers on Vancouver Island. On Wednesday the Vipers were in town only to have the game cancelled due to a 3.5 hour power outage.
As for the hockey here - the Kings are on a bit of a skid after leading the Coastal Conference for the lion’s share of September and October. With just 2 wins in their last 12 games the Kings have slid to fourth in the Coastal Conference.
The King’s strength is from the net out as the tandem of Josh Watson and Michael Garteig have kept opponents well under 3 goals a game.The Powell River defense has four returning cogs that played a bunch in last season’s run to a Coastal Conference Championship.
The glaring weakness for this club is their lack of skilled players upfront. The Kings used all six 20-year-olds slots on forwards last season, which leaves them without most of their firepower from last season.
Lebreche in Training Camp
Mitch Lebreche will play his first game against his former club tonight. Lebreche was part of the 07/08 Fred Page Champion Vees and was moved from Penticton in the pre-season. Mitch is enjoying his most productive season of his BCHL career as he sits on career highs in goals, assists, and points as a 19-year-old.
Last season, the Vees were shellacked in Powell River in Jordan White’s first game of the season. The much older Kings dismantled the Vees as league leading scorer Darcy Oakes buried a pair of goals including one on the first shot of the game. The Kings would win 8-4 with ease.
The Kings have been very solid on home ice this year (like last year) having lost just 2 games in regulation in eleven games at the Rec Centre.
It took the Vees 10 hours to get to Powell River yesterday. Two ferries and a lot of time on the bus was need to finally arrive in the isolated community.
The Queen of Surrey
The Vees were on the bus at 10 AM, at Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) by 2:30, On the Queen of Surrey at 3:30, back on the bus to drive from Langdale to Earl’s Cove, onto the Island Sky at 6:30, and finally pulled into to Powell River at 8PM. That’s a long way for a single hockey game (you could get to Calgary with less hassle, lower cost, and in less time).
Tomorrow the Vees will need two ferries to get back to Burnaby for their 7:30 game with the struggling Express.
Just three teams remain in the hunt for gold at the world Jr A Challenge in Summerside, PEI.
Beau Bennett scored this morning against Russia
The defending champions from the USA are through to the gold medal game after hopping out to a commanding 4-0 lead on the way to a 6-3 victory over the Russians earlier today.
Beau Bennett had a goal in the third period for the American side.
Sean Bonar stretches to make a stop for Canada West
In an all Canadian match-up this afternoon (3PM PST), East will be pitted against West with a trip to the gold medal game on the line. Canada East has been perfect since the puck dropped in exhibition, while Canada West is rounding into form having outscored their opponents 13-6 in back-to-back wins over Sweden and Belarus.
Joey LaLeggia (4 assists) and Beau Bennett (3 goals, 1 assist) each have 4 points and sit in the top 10 in tournament scoring, while Sean Bonar is tied for the tournament lead with a pair of wins. Bonar has a save percentage of .897 and a goals against average of 2.68.
***UPDATE***
Team Canada West plastered Team Canada East 9-1… Ugly. So it will be the match-up featuring all three Vees in the gold medal game as Beau Bennett and Team USA will face Joey LaLeggia, Sean Bonar and Team Canada West.
VEES vs. LANGLEY
For the third time in two seasons, the Langley Chiefs will see the Penticton Vees without their best players. Last season the Chiefs beat a Vees club that was missing Brodie Reid, Curtis McKenzie and Denver Manderson in in their only meeting of the season, while this season’s home-and-home today and tomorrow will be missing Vees puck stopper Sean Bonar, D-man Joey LaLeggia, and super-rook Beau Bennett. Also, out for the Vees is Bruins draft pick Ben Sexton who suffered an upper body injury in Alberni on October 25th.
The last time the Vees played the Chiefs outside of the WJAC, was back in 2007 when the team got in an accident on the way to the rink, delayed the start of the game and then promptly shellacked the home side in one of their most thorough efforts of that championship season.
A player to watch tonight for the Chiefs is rookie defender Tim Daly. The 18-year-old 17-year-old is one of just five BCHL players on the NHL Watch List (a list of draft eligible prospects that NHL Central Scouting throws together every Fall). Also, Daly has just committed to St. Cloud State of the WCHA (NCAA), where Fred Harbinson served as assistant coach before arriving the Okanagan.
Jake Johnson has been especially productive for the Vees since arriving from the Sioux City Muskateers of the USHL. The 20-year-old from Minnesota has 9 points in 8 games with the Vees and will be looking to extend his point streak to 8 games tonight.
Langley has been lurking in the weeds in the Coastal Conference, quietly putting together a tidy winning percentage of .650 with teams like Powell River and Surrey getting all the limelight and attention. The Chiefs have a sparkling 6-2-1-0 record at their new rink - The Langley Events Centre, while the Vees are the BCHL’s best on home ice having gone 8-0-0-1 at the SOEC.
Here’s a sneak-peek at Langley’s barn courtesy of broadcaster/blogger/funny-man Evan Hammond of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.
Pre-game broadcast starts at 6:45 with Al Formo and myself on EZ Rock in the South Okanagan and Similkameen, MyEZRock.com, the BCHL.ca Audio Scoreboard, and the BCHL Pay-Per-View.
Another short-staffed two clubs will hit the ice at the SOEC this weekend. The Vees will be without the aforementioned 3 WJAC competitors as well as Bruins pick Ben Sexton. Merritt meanwhile have been ravaged by the flu bug (not H1N1) to the point where Friday’s game vs. Vernon was in question earlier in the week. The Cents aren’t the only club who have been hit by the flu bug as Burnaby was missing 5 regulars in last night’s 8-0 loss in Penticton, and tonight’s tilt between the Clippers and Grizzlies has been canceled (speculation has the flu as the culprit).
The EVIL Flu Bug
The Cents are running through goalies like I run through clean socks on a road trip… after adding another young tender in Cameron Dagg (the Cents third 17 or younger), the club has finally brought in an veteran guy in the form of 20-year-old Riley Wall who is a Jr. B journeyman. The Cents have allowed more goals against than any other team in the Milky Way… check that, just the BCHL.
Meanwhile, you can look for Billy Faust to make his first BCHL regulation start tonight. Faust is an L.A. kid who was teammates with Beau Bennett last year on the LA Jr. Kings (Midget) and has posted great numbers in Nelson (KIJHL, Jr. ‘B’) thus far this season. The Cali-kid has a tough act to follow as Joel Rumpel hung a zero on the Burnaby Express last night for his first BCHL shutout.
Tonight’s broadcast will start at 6:45 on EZ Rock in the South Okanagan and Similkameen, at BCHL.ca at the audio scoreboad, and at MyEZRock.com. I’ll be flying solo as Al Formo is dressing up for Halloween as the invisible man.
WJAC UPDATE
Though the tournament has yet to begin with the games that actually matter, Team Canada West has suited up for a pair of exhibition games in the Maritimes. On Thursday the Western Canadians beat Belarus 3-2 in a shootout, while they dropped a 5-2 decision to the defending gold medalists from USA last night.
As for the Vees in the competition, Beau Bennett has recorded an assist in his only game for the Yankees, while Sean Bonar has a win in his only appearance and stopped all three shots in the shootout, while Joey LaLeggia (who’s name is spelled ‘LaLegea’ in the boxscore) has a single assist in his two games played.
The real action gets underway on Sunday when the Canada West crew face the Russians, and the Americans clash with the Swedes. Elimination games begin on Thursday.
After a day of riding the bus, chowing on Italian food at the Bonar’s home (”Complimenti alla cuoca”), a ferry ride to the Island, the Vees actually play a hockey game tonight!
The last time the Vees played a game was Saturday the 10th of October - a 9-1 thrashing of the Centennials at the SOEC. To put the break of the Vees schedule in perspective, the Salmon Arm Silverbacks have played 6 times since then (and now sit just a single point behind the Vees)!
Since we last spoke, the dreaded Vipers have scored 27 goals and picked up 8 more points. Meaning there is work to be done for the blue, black & white, as Vernon is now 5 points ahead of Penticton for top spot in the BCHL, and the Interior Conference (though the Vees hold a game in hand).
Tonight is the first meeting of the season between the Vees and Grizzlies, and marks the first time every Vees player has played the Grizzlies at Bear Mountain Arena with the exception of Eric Filiou (who was a Nanaimo Clipper the past two years).
The Vees didn’t visit the Grizzlies last year, and won their only meeting of the season in dramatic fashion as Garrett Milan tied the game at one in the final minute then won the game in overtime to rob Penticton product Evan Smith of a shutout victory in front of friends and family.
Victoria is younger this year and the Vees are not… look for a high scoring affair as the Grizzlies are the top offensive club in the Coastal Conference and the Vees are 2nd in the BCHL in goals for.
Broadcast time is 7:00 tonight, opening face-off at 7:15 on EZ Rock in the South Okanagan and Similkameen, at MyEZRock.com, and the at the BCHL’s audio scoreboard.
The USHL isn’t nearly as wowed where Beau’s name seems invisible compared to the other 21 members of the American WJAC roster. Feeling snubbed, anyone?
With 5 hours on the bus and 90 minutes on the ferry to get to Victoria from Penticton, there has been lots of time for reading on the road/sea.
Vees hockey head Fred Harbinson got through Theo Fleury’s new book in record time. It’s an incredible roller coaster ride Theo has had from Manitoba through his near attempt to crack the Flames roster in September. Consensus is ‘Playing with Fire’ is a must read.
If you love the NFL as much or more than the BCHL, here are 3 can’t miss reads for the week…
#1 The New Yorker has a shocking piece on head injuries, football’s similarity to dog fighting. Writer Malcolm Gladwell (author of bestsellers ‘The Tipping Point’ & ‘Outliers’ among other books) has opened a huge can of worm on this one. Mothers, don’t let your sons play near the line of scrimmage.
#2 Tuesday Morning Quarterback is a weekly look at the NFL’s ‘fraidy cat’ coaches, tactics, cheerleaders, and a random smattering of astronomy news (seriously). This week academic sports nerd Gregg Easterbrook looks at the Tennessee Titans fall from grace.
It’s shaping up to be fire against fire tonight as the two of the league’s most powerful offenses square off at the SOEC.
Tonight’s match pits the 5th ranked Penticton Vees against the 6th ranked Salmon Arm Silverbacks, in the Vees first game against a nationally ranked team in the country. Both teams have been getting it done with offense, as the Vees have scored 30 goals in six games, while the Silverbacks have 24 goals in five games played.
Sean Bonar Will Attempt to Slow the Silverbacks Snipers
Heading into tonight’s action, the Vees and Silverbacks can lay claim to seven of the league’s top thirteen scorers. F - Denver Manderson (89), F - Beau Bennett (91) and F - Mark Zengerle (89) are 1-2-3 in the scoring race with 16, 14 and 11 points respectively, while F - Travis Statchuk (90) and D - Joey LaLeggia (92) have 9 points each, while F - David Killip (91) has 8 points and F - Garrett Milan (91) has 7.
Mark Zengerle was named the BCHL’s ‘Player of the Week’ on Monday after a monster 9 point weekend in the Caribou, while Vees Captain Denver Manderson was named the P.O.W. after the opening weekend of the season.
On top of the obvious stakes of facing a Conference foe, some Vees will also be looking to impress Salmon Arm GM Rylan Ferster who is part of the Team Canada West brass for the upcoming 2009 World Junior ‘A’ Challenge. Milan, LaLeggia and Bonar were named to the evaluation camp roster set for next week in Okotoks.
The Silverbacks are (3-1-0-1) with both loses coming at the hands of the Vernon Vipers, while the Vees are (5-1-0-0), suffering their lone loss in West Kelowna last weekend.
The Vees are inviting fans to come down to the rink early for the first three home games of the year. Global Spectrum’s Director of Marketing Ryan McCarthy has the full details.
