GAME RECAP: McGuire Scores Twice As Vees Extend Streak To Five Games
PHOTO: Cherie Morgan/Cherie Morgan Photography
PENTICTON, B.C. – The Penticton Vees earned their fifth straight victory on Sunday evening at the South Okanagan Events Centre with a 6-1 triumph over the Trail Smoke Eaters.
The Vees showed strong early jump in the game, scoring four times in the opening 20 minutes of play beginning with a marker from their captain, Fin Williams, just over five minutes into the game as the Vees scored first for the fourth time in five contests.
While on the power play, Williams made a nice play to outwait Smoke Eaters goaltender Cayden Hamming on the blocker side and tuck a puck in for his 2nd goal of the season at the 5:01 mark of the opening period to give Penticton a 1-0 lead.
Just 16 seconds after that, Tom Richter finished with his first goal as a Vee on a two-on-one with Ryan Upson to see Penticton jump ahead by a 2-0 score. Upson dragged past a defender on the right wing as he slid a pass on his backhand to the blocker side where Richter was racing to and chipped it over the shoulder of Hamming for his 1st of the season at the 5:17 mark to push the Vees ahead by a pair.
Ryan McGuire increased the Vees lead to three goals at the 10:26 mark of the opening frame after taking a pass in the right face-off circle and sending a shot off of a Smoke Eaters defender and past the glove side of Hamming for his second goal of the season and a 3-0 Vees edge.
Penticton capped off their scoring frenzy in the opening frame with Jacob Quillan scoring in his second straight game to push the Vees lead to 4-0. Liam Malmquist centered from the right-wing side and pushed a puck to the slot where Quillan gathered and snapped a shot past the glove side of Hamming for his 3rd goal of the season and a four-goal Vees lead heading into the middle stanza.
Kaleb McEachern made his first start in the BC Hockey League and with the Vees and was strong in the opening period and throughout the second frame, turning aside each of the 13 shots he faced in the opening two periods while Cayden Hamming stopped 24 of the 28 shots thrown his way in his 40 minutes of action.
Ryan McGuire increased the Vees lead to five goals at the 4:16 mark of the 3rd period with his first two-goal game of his career. Tyler Ho scooted into the offensive zone and lost the puck to the left-wing face-off circle where McGuire collected on his backhand and lifted a shot over the glove side of Hamming to extend the Vees advantage to 5-0.
Luc Wilson capped off the Vees scoring at the 11:22 mark of the 3rd period on a 5-on-3 power play advantage. Wilson patrolled his way to the blue line where he let a shot go through traffic that beat Hamming on the glove side for his 5th goal of the season and extended the Vees lead to 6-0 over halfway through the 3rd period.
Cam Moger ended the shutout bid for McEachern with a chip shot over the blocker shoulder of the Vees goaltender at the 17:44 mark while shorthanded to make the game at 6-1 final score.
Kaleb McEachern turned aside 20 of the 21 shots he faced in his 1st win as a Vee and in the BCHL while Cayden Hamming stopped 34 of the 40 shots thrown his way in his 3rd loss of the season.
FINAL SCORE: 6-1 Vees
SHOTS ON GOAL: 40-21 Vees
VEES PP: 2/7
VEES PK: 2/2
3 STARS:
1) Ryan McGuire (2-0-2)
2) Liam Malmquist (0-3-3)
3) Tom Richter (1-1-2)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Brady Hunter (0-0-0)
The Vees (5-0-0-0) look to extend their winning streak to six games as they face-off against the Cranbrook Bucks (1-4-0-0-) on Monday night. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM with the game broadcasted live on EZ Rock AM 800 as well as on HockeyTV.com beginning with the pre-game show at 6:40 PM with the Voice of the Vees, Trevor Miller.