Saturday’s Interior Division clinching B.C. Hockey League shutout win for the Penticton Vees (37-16-3-2) over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (27-26-4-1) was a double victory.
Not only did the 4-0 decision at the South Okanagan Events Centre in front of over 3,000 happy fans earn the team an eighth consecutive division banner it marked the 500th regular season career win for head coach and general manager Fred Harbinson in his 12 season.
The Vees will open the first round of the best of seven Fred Page Cup playoffs at home Thursday against the Island Division crossovers, the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
Game two is Saturday at the SOEC.
Heading into the game Saturday the Vees and Merritt Centennials were tied atop the standings, and while Merritt won their overtime game in Vernon against the Vipers it came down to the season record between the two teams with the Vees having won four of the five meetings.
“Right from the whole weekend there was a lot of pressure on the boys, they wanted to finish first and you know it wouldn’t have been the end of the world (to lose) but you know what, these are players that are driven and when you’re driven you want to win whenever you can,” said Harbinson after the game. “You always want to finish in first, it’s not going to give us any lesser opponent every team that makes the playoffs in this league is a strong team. For here we’re always trying to put banners in the rafters and we’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”
About his 500th win, which only three other coaches in league history have accomplished, he said: “I share it with everybody in this city. It’s an organizational accomplishment 100 per cent and it’s something we should be proud of, to average that many wins over a 12-year period is pretty special.”
Related: Penticton Vees look to playoffs after Feb. 16 win against Langley
Penticton jumped out into an early lead Saturday when Andre Ghantous scored just 69 seconds into the game and the team never looked back as the league’s number two goaltender, Jack LaFontaine, recorded his third shutout of the season stopping all 23 shots.
Related: Penticton Vees shut down by Merritt Centennials on Feb. 15
Eights seconds later Ty Pochipinski put the Vees up by two and Ryan Sandelin made it 3-0 less than 10 minutes into the game.
David Silye rounded out the Penticton scoring in the middle frame.
Game time is 7 p.m. Thursday and Saturday is a 6 p.m. start.
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