Matthew Serratore saved his best shot for last and it was worth two points to the Penticton Vees.
The 20-year-old Vees forward snapped a shot through the legs of Jesse Jenks 3:38 into the second overtime to clinch a 3-2 victory over the Prince George Spruce Kings Thursday night at the Coliseum.
Playing in a half-full Coliseum in front of a crowd of 904, the fans who did show up got treated to a highly-entertaining display of lightning-quick, clean-hitting hockey from two of the upper-echelon teams in the B.C. Hockey League, who left the outcome in doubt right to the end.
The Vees roster of 24 includes 12 NCAA college-bound recruits and two NHL-drafted players. Right winger Jack Ramsey joined the Vees last season out of Minnesota and got picked in the seventh round of the 2014 draft by Chicago, while the Ottawa Senators chose Vees' defenceman Miles Gendron in the third round, 70th overall, in the June draft.
Leading 1-0 on a goal by Lewis Zerter-Gossage, the Vees added to the total 20 seconds into the third period and Ramsey did most of the work, waiting until the he was right on the doorstep of goalie Jesse Jenks before dishing the puck to Riley Alferd for an easy tap-in into the open side.
The Kings answered 40 seconds later on the power play, a low shot from the face-off circle from Jeremiah Luedtke that found the mesh behind Hunter Miska. The Kings kept coming on strong in the third period and Brogan O'Brien tied it 2-2 with the pretty inside move to burn Vees forward Demico Hannoun. All alone in the slot, the 17-year-old Prince George minor hockey product deftly tucked the puck into the net for his second goal of the season while getting flattened in the crease.
Ramsey came close to ending it with 17 seconds left in regulation time, blasting a point-blank shot at the Kings net from close range, but Jenks came up with a game-saving save.
The Kings dropped to 9-4-0-2 while the Interior Division-leading Vees improved to 11-2-0-0.
The ice had an obvious tilt toward the Prince George net in the first period and the fleet-footed Vees used that to build a 15-2 shot advantage but had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard. While limited to two shots on goal, the Spruce Kings actually had the better scoring chances but had trouble finding the cage.
The Kings found their skating legs in an evenly-played second period and had success pinning the Vees in their own zone for extended periods in the middle frame. The best scoring chance for Prince George came midway through the period when Cole Todd used his breakaway speed to get free of his check on a 3-on-2 but was stuffed by Miska's standup save.
Penticton opened the scoring 12:37 into the second on an individual effort from Montreal product Zerter-Gossage, who went wide with the puck around defenceman Alexander Stoley and put a wrister in off the shoulder of goalie Jenks. The Kings had a golden opportunity to tie it just before the second intermission with two Vees off for slashing but were unable to muster a shot on net.
Aided by yeoman work on the blueline from Raymond Grewal, Jenks made 39 saves in one of his best games of the season.
The Kings play host to the Trail Smoke Eaters (7-3-0-0) Saturday night, then take on the Powell River Kings (4-5-0-3) at the Coliseum Sunday at 3 p.m.
