The Penticton Vees did the expected and drew first blood from the Prince George Spruce Kings to open the B.C. Hockey League playoffs, winning 3-0.
But it wasn’t as simple as that might appear.
The Spruce Kings forgot all about what happened in the regular season that contributed to their last-place Interior Conference finish and made the first-place Vees work for all they could muster. That hard work eventually paid off with a win to start the best-of-seven series on home ice at South Okanagan Events Centre.
Will Ingemann was sharp as the game’s first star, especially in the first half of the game. He made 20 saves to earn his first career BCHL playoff shutout.
Anselmo Rego, opened the scoring on a rebound 12 minutes into the first period, and late in the second period Fransceco Dell’Elce and Zack Stringer scored three minutes apart to put the game out of reach for the visitors.
Ingemann made some clutch saves early on and denied Kazumo Sasaki with a blocker stop on a breakaway early in the second period. The Kings moved the puck well on the power play in the second period and the Vees goalie came up big to deny Alexis Cournoyer on a tap-in that would have tied the game.
Charlie Zolin was solid in net for the Spruce Kings, who were outshot 27-20. Zolin made a highlight-reel glove save to deny Stringer on a Vees power play just before a tripping penalty to Owen Goodbrand expired. Unfortunately for the Kings, Stringer was able to find the net behind Zolin, one second after Goodbrand returned to the ice.
Zolin could not be faulted on the second goal, which came off the stick of pointman Dell’Elce, who shot through a sea of Vees blocking the goalie’s line of sight.
The Spruce Kings dressed just five defencemen with veterans Ben LeFranc and Trent Ballantyne injured. Kai Greaves, Aidan Souligny and Amran Bhabra each played more than 30 minutes as coach Alex Evin elected to give his more experienced rearguards a ton of icetime.
Game 2 is set for Saturday in Penticton (7 p.m. start.).
The series switches to Prince George at Kopar Memorial Arena for Games 3 and 4 Tuesday and Wednesday.
