The Penticton Vees got four points from their Captain Fin Williams as well as a hat-trick off the stick of Devlin O’Brien in their fourth consecutive victory in a 7-2 win over the Trail Smoke Eaters on Thursday (April 29) night at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
With the victory, the Vees improve to 13-1-0-1 with just five games remaining in the shortened pod season.
O’Brien got to work early, giving the Vees a 1-0 lead just over three minutes into the opening period of play.
Trail’s Kalen Szeto answered for the Smoke Eaters, tying the game on a redirected shot past Vees’ goalie Kaeden Lane at the 10:54 mark of the 1st period to tie the game.
Luc Wilson got the Vees back on top with his team-leading thirteenth goal of the season to push Penticton ahead by a 2-1 score with less than four minutes remaining the first period.
The second period belonged to O’Brien and the Vees as the rookie tallied his second goal of the game at the 8:39 mark of the middle stanza to push Penticton ahead by two goals.
O’Brien completed the hat-trick with a goal just over three minutes later to push the Vees lead to 4-1.
The Vees continued to build on their lead in the third period as Grayson Arnott added to the Penticton advantage with the first of three goals in the period at the 5:32 mark of the third period for a 5-1 Penticton lead.
Szeto potted his 2nd goal of the game for Trail at the 6:54 mark of the period on a partial breakaway to make the game 5-2 before Quillan added his eighth of the campaign at 10:56 to give Penticton a 6-2 edge.
Vees captain Fin Williams capped the scoring in the game with his fifth goal of the season for the 7-2 final score.
Kaeden Lane turned aside 28 of the 30 shots he faced in his league-leading eleventh win of the season while Trail goaltender Cayden Hamming stopped 37 of the 44 shots thrown at his net in his fourth loss of the campaign.
Check out the full game highlights below:
The Vees will play their second back-to-back game as they face-off against the Cranbrook Bucks (2-10-0-1) on Friday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m. 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 p.m.
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jesse.day@pentictonwesternnews.com
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