PENTICTON – The top powerplay unit in the league single-handedly defeated the Prince George Spruce Kings as the Penticton Vees went on to win Saturday night by a score of 4-1 at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
The Vees remain undefeated, improving their record to perfect 20-0 while the Spruce Kings see their record go to 12-6-1-1.
Hank Levy earned the win between the pipes for the Vees, stopping 22 of the 23 shots fired his way. Meanwhile, Aidan Feddema stood strong early on but was ultimately the victim of the Vees man advantage. Feddema stopped 18 of 22 shots and was handed the loss.
The initial 20 minutes went scoreless between the two sides as practically every statistical category was knotted up at the first intermission.
In the second period, the Spruce Kings opened the scoring. A centring pass from the side of the net found Jake Schneider positioned in the slot. The forward put the shot in past Levy for his 7th of the season. The goal came at 1:35 of the middle frame and was unassisted.
With Prince George ahead 1-0, penalties became an issue for the visiting side.
Linden Makow was sent off for a hooking penalty, leading to a game-tying goal from Bradly Nadeau less than 20 seconds later.
The goal marked Nadeau’s 21st of the season with brother Josh and Ryan Hopkins assisting on the play.
Later in the period, Charlie Banquier was sent to the box to serve a misconduct after being called for a blow to the head on Bradly Nadeau. While in the box, the Vees looked to continue their success with the man-advantage. Jackson Nieuwendyk scored his 9th of the season after being set up by Josh Nadeau and Aydar Suniev at 17:42 of the second period.
The Vees carried a 2-1 lead into the intermission.
In the third period, the penalties continued to hurt Prince George.
Jack Stockfish was penalized for high-sticking, leading to an insurance goal by Josh Nadeau one minute later. Nieuwendyk and Suniev earned the assists on the play as Nadeau tallied his third point of the night.
Stockfish committed his fourth stick infraction of the game, leading to his ejection from the game.
The penalty was served by Brayden Skogstad and seconds after coming out of the box, following a successful penalty kill, the Vees scored their fourth goal of the night. Aydar Suniev scored his 14th of the season. The Nadeau brothers assisted on the play.
Penticton finished the game three of five on the powerplay while Prince George failed to score a powerplay goal on three opportunities. The Spruce Kings have now gone seven games without scoring a powerplay goal.
The Spruce Kings now head home to Prince George to close out the month of November with two games against the West Kelowna Warriors on Friday, November 25 and Saturday, November 26.
Both games are scheduled to get underway at 7:00 PM.
