Penticton, BC – The Penticton Vees (27-10-1) shutout the Powell River Kings (18-17-2) 4-0 on Friday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
The Kings drop their fifth straight contest against the Vees (since 2017-18 season) and move to 1-2 over the first three games of their four game road trip.
The Vees opened the scoring 24 seconds into the game, as Tristen Amonte potted the puck through the legs of goaltender Derek Krall on their first shot of the game. Penticton would follow with a goal in the second, and two more in the third as Lukas Sillinger, Danny Weight and David Silye found the net.
Vees’ goaltender Yaniv Perets recorded his fifth shutout of the season and ninth of his Jr. A career, making 19 saves in the win.
“He’s a good goalie,” said Kings assistant coach Brock Sawyer. “I thought we did a good job coming down the wing and shooting far pad, but he was very poise. He did give up some rebounds, but he would kick it Kirk McLean style to the blue line. He stopped the ones he had to, and they did a good job clearing out so he could see it.”
The Kings are shutout for the sixth time this season. Sawyer said his forwards worked extremely hard, but the defence struggled.
“I thought our effort was there, and our forwards competed really hard, “added Sawyer. “I thought our defence struggled, and we weren’t competing. The effort was there, but we just missed our chances, shot pucks over the net, played hard and did a lot of good things.”
Former Vee’ Derek Krall allowed four goals on 33 shots in the loss.
“Anytime you play against your former team, you want to do well, and I thought he was good. He made the saves he had to, but I hate to say it – our defence didn’t help him,” said Sawyer.
The Powell River Kings have one more game left before their Christmas break. The Kings take on the Wenatchee Wild tonight (Saturday) at 7:05 p.m., capping off their four game road trip.
