Home ice advantage appears to be just that for the Penticton Vees, following back-to-back wins in their best-of-seven series against the Wenatchee Wild.
The Vees’ latest victory gave fans plenty to cheer about, after dismantling the Wild 7-0 on Saturday night. The home team came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, scoring 4 goals on 16 shots in the opening frame.
Aydar Suniev, Joshua Niedermayer, and Beanie Richter all got on the scoresheet before the nine-minute mark of the first period, with Niedermayer and Richter registering their first goals of the postseason.
The Vees would eventually make it 4-0 before the buzzer sounded to end first period, courtesy of 19-year-old Brett Moravec, who’s registered 5 goals thus far in the 2023 BCHL Playoffs.
The game was not even halfway over by the time Jackson Nieuwendyk made it a 5-0, scoring his first of the playoffs six and a half minutes into the middle frame.
Penticton would strike twice more in the final frame, and goaltender Luca Di Pasquo earned his first shut of the BCHL Playoffs, posting 22 saves to improve his record to 6 and 0 in the postseason.
Saturday night’s shutout also marked Di Pasquo’s first since Feb. 3, against the Surrey Eagles. Di Pasquo had four shutouts in the regular season and has stopped 70 of 72 shots over his last three starts.
Penticton has come out victorious in 21-straight games dating back to Feb. 10, and the team has also won 38 games in a row at home dating back to April 1, 2022.
The Vees will hit the road and head south of the border to take on Wenatchee for Games 3 and 4, starting on Tuesday night.
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