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.
One third of the way into the 2009/2010 campaign, the Penticton Vees are on pace for their highest output since being renamed the Vees in 2004.
The Vees wait on the bench for another flood at practice
In fact since junior hockey arrived in Penticton in the 1961 no team has never eclipsed 100 points, though through a third of the season the Vees are ahead of that mystical century mark as 17-2-0-1 is a pace for a 105 point season. While that is just a projection, there are reasons to believe that maybe, just maybe, the Vees can continue to roll at their current pace.
For budding historians in the crowd 52 wins is the BCHL record set by the New Westminster Royals in 89-90 and the Vernon Vipers of 98-99. That New-West club also had 108 points, which stands as the BCHL record. The Royals beat Fred Harbinson (the player) and the Calgary Canucks that year in the Doyle Cup… Crazy.
Clearly this club is deep and talented. Clearly they are among the best teams in Junior ‘A’ in Canada. Clearly there are players who will be selected in the NHL Entry Draft this coming June in LA (Beau Bennett, Luke Curadi, Joey LaLeggia, Sean Bonar, and Isaac MacLeod are on scouting radars). The rest is still to be determined.
With the first 20 games in the history books, let’s pour a scotch, light the fireplace, and take a closer look at how the season has gone to this point. (more…)
No games today at the WJAC in Summerside, PEI as the tournament pauses before the Quarter-finals on Thursday and the Semi-finals on Friday.
Action from Team USA’s 6-1 win yesterday over Belarus
Team Canada West faces Belarus at 3:00PM tomorrow (that’s 7:00PM AST in Summerside, PEI… if you’re in the neighbourhood) in a rematch of an exhibition contest that Canada West won in a shootout 3-2 after Kellen Jones tied the game with a second remaining.
At 10AM (2PM AST) defending gold medal winners - USA - face the win-less Swedes who have had some issues keeping pucks out of their net, having allowed 9 goals on 61 shots through two games at the WJAC.
Beau Bennett had another goal in the USA 6-1 win over the Belorussians yesterday. Beau now has 2g-1a-3pts in 2 games with the American squad which puts him just a point back of the tournament leaders.
Canada East and Russia await the winners of the quarterfinals and won’t play until Friday. Canada East faces the winner of Canada West / Belarus, while the Russians face the winner of Sweden / USA.
The Penticton Vees are sad to see the month of October end after a 4-1 win over the Merritt Centennials that moved the club to 10-0-0-1 in the second month of the BCHL season.
Billy Faust earned his first career BCHL win and the Vees vaulted over Vernon and into first place in the Interior Conference with their seventh consecutive win on Saturday. The Vees have earned 21 of 22 points in October while outscoring their opponents 55-12 over the eleven game streak.
Saturday saw the Vees pepper the Cents with 42 shots while allowing just 18. A flu shortened Centennials bench was no match for the Vees short bench with three players at the World Jr. ‘A’ Challenge in Prince Edward Island and another gone to injury.
Logan Johnston was the games first star and only player to record a multi-point night as he rifled in his fifth of the year on a wicked wrister and set up Eric Filiou’s sixth of the season. Garrett Milan added his twelfth of the year on a shot from in close and Ryan Viselli’s sixth of the year opened the scoring as he tucked home a back-hand in the first period.
Denver Manderson and Jake Johnson bumped their point streaks to seven games as each added an assist in the win.
The Centennials lone goal came at the 16:35 mark of the third period that spoiled Billy Faust’s shutout bid. Alex Valenti whacked in a puck in the slot and Colton Sobchek and Derek Hills drew assists. Riley Wall made 38 saves on 42 shots in his first BCHL game of the season, playing as an AP for the Centennials.
The Vees did not score a goal over the weekend, but were perfect on the penalty kill. On Friday the Vees ended up 0/4 on the man-advantage, but were perfect in killing all three minors assessed to the club.
Next up for the Vees are the Langley Chiefs who will visit Penticton on Friday then host the Vees on Saturday from the brand new Langley Events Centre.
The Penticton Vees didn’t miss a beat with four of their top players out of the line-up on Friday Night, as they pounded the Burnaby Express 8-0 at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Alex Szczechura had two assists while filling on the Vees top line
Joey Holka and Bo Dolan notched a pair of goals each, and rookie puck-stopper Joel Rumpel turned aside all 33 shot for his first BCHL shutout and the Vees sixth consecutive victory. Harrison May allowed all eight goals on 45 Vees shots in the eleventh loss in the last thirteen games for the Express.
Captain Denver Manderson added another 3 points including his 15th goal of the season, while newcomer Taylor Peters had a short handed goal and two assists in his first BCHL game since being assigned to Penticton from Portland of the WHL. Other Vees recording multi-point nights were Garrett Milan, Jake Johnson, and Alex Szczechura. Johnson now has 8 points in 7 games since arriving in Penticton after starting his junior career with the Sioux City Muskateers of the USHL.
The Penticton home victory spoiled the return of former Vees Brad Reid, Jimmy Geerin, Matt Ridley and Luke Challier – who had multiple opportunities but failed to get the puck past Joel Rumpel.
With Sean Bonar and Joey LaLeggia playing for team Canada West in the World Junior A Challenge in P.E.I. and Ben Sexton out with an upper body injury, the Vees showed superior depth to their opponents who were also missing numerous players to a flu bug that has passed through their team.
When the dust settled on Friday nine Vees players had a point while seven had multi point nights. The Vees have 19 point in their last ten games with the only hiccup an overtime loss to the Vipers on October 9th. The Vees sit one point behind the Vipers for top spot in the Interior Conference, while Vernon holds a game in hand.
The Vees power play was the lone blemish on the night as the Vees finished 0/3, though the penalty kill was a perfect 6/6.
Tomorrow the Vees host the Merritt Centennials who are battling the flu and lost 10-4 to Vernon on Friday. Opening face-off is at 7:05 while the pre-game show on EZ Rock starts at 6:45.
Eddie Gregory joins us to preview Friday’s pending visit from the Burnaby Express (lots of former Vees on that squad). Also we hear from the Head Scout of the Vees, catch highlights of a successful 6-days on Vancouver Island, and pick Coach Fred Harbinson’s brain as we cornered him on the ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver last night.
Who’s leading the Vees in the 3 star standings?? Rock hard hits?? Hardest working honours? Yeah.. we’ve got that too!
‘Vees This Week’ is brought to you by Boston Pizza. Be sure to join us at BP’s on the 3rd of November as the whole team will be in attendance to sign autographs, and we’ll have prizes galore - including a spectacular Canucks prize package including two ticket to a ‘nucks game and a night’s stay in Vancouver. See you there!
With a nail-biting 4-3 victory in Port Alberni the Penticton Vees have accomplished a rare feat - grabbing eight of eight points on Vancouver Island. The Vees win on Sunday was their third win in 48 hours and fourth in five days in hostile territory.
Sean Bonar was spectacular down the stretch as the Bulldogs pressed for an equalizing goal in the final three minutes. Bonar made 29 stops on 32 shots for his eleventh win of the year in his final game before departing for Prince Edward Island to play for Team Canada West at the World Junior ‘A’ Challenge.
Luke Curadi opened the scoring less than two minutes in with his second of the season. Less than 3 minutes later Beau Bennett put the Vees up by two with his twelfth of the season and the Vees looked like they were well on their way.
After the opening pair though, the Vees faced a major hurdle in the form of four minutes and 40 seconds of consecutive Alberni 5-on-3 advantage. The Vees managed to kill off the first 4:38 before a point-shot was tipped past Bonar by Sam Mitchell.
Logan Johnston’s 5th goal early in the second put the Vees back up by two, before Matt Paltridge made it 4-1 midway through the second frame. Jesse Halikas brought the Bulldogs within a pair late in the second period, and Warren Muir had the lone goal in the third period to get the Bulldogs within one, which was as close as they would get.
Eric Filiou recorded the only multi-point performance as he recorded his 7th and 8th assists of the year. Other Vees seting up goals on the night were Joey LaLeggia, Jake Johnson, Ben Sexton and Alex Szczechura.
After a four-win week on the Island the Vees are now (15-2-0-1) and have won five in a row after an overtime loss to Vernon on the 9th of October.
With the win the Vees are now a single point behind the Vernon Vipers for top spot in the Interior Conference, with the Vipers holding a game in hand.
Heading east for the World Junior ‘A’ Challenge on Monday are Joey LaLeggia and Sean Bonar who will play for Team Canada West, and Beau Bennett who will join Team USA midweek. The trio of Vees will miss the next four games before returning to the Okanagan to join the Vees. Penticton has sent ten players and one coach to the international event in the four years of its existence.
Next action for the Vees comes Friday Night at the SOEC as the Burnaby Express make their second pass through the Interior Conference. On Saturday night the Merritt Centennials will play visitor in Penticton. Both games start at 7:05 with the pre-game show starting at 6:45 on EZ Rock, and online at MyEZRock.com
The Penticton Vees remain undefeated on their Island road trip after a 5-2 win in Nanaimo on Saturday night. The Vees now have 3 wins in as many games with just one tilt remaining on their five-day voyage.
Joey Holka was named the first star of the game as he had a pair of goals to pace the Vees. The 19-year-old Phoenix, Arizona product now has 8 goals in this his sophomore BCHL season.
An injury shortened Nanaimo roster tied the game twice with special teams goals but fell short in the long run without their leading scorer, number one goalie, and other regulars out. Kyle Kramer scored shorthanded and newcomer Teal Burns - who was acquired on Friday via trade - scored on the power play to tie the game in the second.
On the back end Matt Paltridge had a goal and an assist in the Vees 14th win of the season. Paltridge’s fourth of the campaign served as the insurance goal putting the Vees up 4-2 midway through the third period.
The Vees leaders also got on the score sheet as alternate captain Adam Zamec popped his second goal of the season on a nice set up from Jake Johnson, and captain Denver Manderson buried his 14th of the season in the middle frame to take sole possession of the BCHL scoring race with 39 points.
Joel Rumpel outdueled Mark Segal in a battle of two back-up net-minders. Rumpel allowed two goals on 21 shots for his 4th win, while Segal who was making his second start as a Clipper stopped 33 of 38 in a losing cause.
The Vees power play finished 1/7 on the night, while killing 5 of 6 penalties taken. After a run of 31 consecutive penalties killed, the Vees finally allowed their first power play goal against since September 29th.
Ben Sexton had a pair of helpers, while former Clipper Eric Filiou had a single assist in his return to Nanaimo, as did Isaac MacLeod, Alex Szczechura, Beau Bennett and Garrett Milan.
With Vernon winning at home against Quesnel in overtime, the Vees remain 3 points behind the Vipers for top spot in the Interior Conference.
Next action for the Vees comes Sunday afternoon at 2:30 in Port Alberni where the Bulldogs will have the last attempt at the Vees a loss on Vancouver Island. Pre-game chatter starts at 2:15 on EZ Rock AM 800 in Penticton and at MyEZRock.com
