Photo Courtesy of Dylan Lynch/Hockey Canada Images.
(Full Game Recap + Game Highlights tonight)
The Penticton Vees dropped their opening game of the 2012 RBC CUP, 2-1 to the Soo Thunderbirds Saturday. The Vees (0-1) next play the host Humboldt Broncos on Sunday evening.
Soo netminder John Kleinhans was simply sensational on Saturday afternoon, turning aside forty-four of forty-five Vees shots in the win. Kleinhans stopped thirty-four of thirty-five shots in the last two periods alone, including eighteen of nineteen shots in the second.
Jake Wright opened the scoring in the first period for the T-Birds. Wright found a loose puck in the Vees crease and shoveled it over the goal-line at 9:48. The Vees pressed in the closing minutes but couldn’t equalize and went into the intermission trailing by one.
In the second, with tremendous pressure in the Soo zone, the Vees found the equalizer off a goal-mouth scramble. Joey Benik banked a shot from behind the goal-line off of Kleinhans and in at 18:04 to break the goose-egg. Benik was stopped twice before the goal but was not deterred and tracked down the puck before putting it off of Kleinhans.
The Vees controlled the second period, as they continually pressured the T-Birds end but only had the one goal on nineteen shots. It was the same story in the third period, as the Vees poured on the pressure but couldn’t break the deadlock.
Midway through the third period the Vees bad luck continued, as James Delayer scored off the rush, on a T-Birds power-play, at 11:26; restoring Soo’s one-goal lead. Delayer skated in on the right-wing and his shot from the outside beat Mike Garteig over the blocker.
In the final minutes the Vees continued to attack the T-Birds net but try as they might, they couldn’t get an equalizer. In the final seconds and with the extra-attacker, the Vees swarmed the Soo goal but nothing materialized as the game came to an end.
Final Score: 2-1 Thunderbirds
Shots: 45-15 Vees
Power-Plays: Vees 0/4 Thunderbirds 1/5
Player of the Game: Vees- Steven Fogarty Thunderbirds- John Kleinhans
