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Image Credit: Penticton Vees
November 30, 2013 - 9:39 AM
Gage Torrel finished what he started on Friday, as the Langley Rivermen forward scored twice, including the game-winner, as the Rivermen rallied to beat the Penticton Vees 5-4 Friday at the SOEC.
Vees Captain Brad McClure’s game-high two-goals and four points wasn’t enough to propel the Vees to their seventeenth win of the season. The Vees came back three times to tie the game, including erasing a two-goal second period deficit but couldn’t hang on in the end.
Gage Torrel opened and closed out the scoring on Friday, as Langley came back down a goal midway through the third period, to steal two points away from the Vees.
In the third, the two teams combined for five goals, the last two coming off Langley Rivermen sticks. After Matt Ustaski pounced on a turnover in the slot to tie the game at 12:11, Torrel scored the game-winner less than ninety seconds later. Langley’s James Robinson stole the puck behind the Vees net and then fed Torrel out front, who roofed his second of the game over Olivier Mantha at 13:34.
That, after Brad McClure staked the Vees out to their only lead of the game seven and a half minutes into the third. Tied 3-3, McClure curled off the left-wing boards and sniped his team-leading twentieth of the season over the shoulder of Brock Crosthwaite at 7:24.
The Vees were down a goal early in the third period, when James Robinson converted on a quick passing play in the Vees zone. The puck was intercepted on the wall by Langley and snapped across the zone to Gage Torrel in the left-circle. Torrel then quickly pushed the puck back into the crease for Robinson for the tap-in just thirty-three seconds after the opening face-off.
The Langley lead didn’t last long, as Brett Beauvais brought the Vees back on level terms. On the Vees second power of the night, Beauvais had his shot from the blue-line deflect off a leg in front and past Crossthwaite at 4:40; that goal setting the stage for McClure’s heroics three minutes later.
The Vees found themselves down a pair of goals to start the second, after the Torrel and Jakob Reichert scored twice in a thirty second span in the first. Ben Dalpe cut into the deficit just shy of the seven minute mark in the middle frame, when he cleaned up the garbage on a Vees odd-man rush. Dalpe was the trailer on the play and had the puck bounce to him between the circles. Dalpe put the rebound up underneath the cross-bar at 6:45 for his ninth and second in as many games.
Brad McClure first of two on the night, drew the Vees level four minutes later when he squeezed a shot through the legs of Crossthwaite. The puck was dished out to McClure from the right-wing and he got just enough on his attempt to push it through the legs of Crossthwaite at 10:41.
For the second straight game, the Vees went down by pair goals in the first period. Torrel opened the scoring at 8:04 when James Robinson slid the puck out front from behind the goal-line. Robinson’s left-wing shot was stopped by Hunter Miska but Robinson took his own rebound around the net, and spotted Torrel at the top of crease who made no mistake. On the next shift, Jakob Reichert moved into the Vees zone on the left-wing and snuck a wrist-shot from the circle past Miska’s blocker at 8:34; Olivier Mantha replaced Miska midway through the first period.
FINAL SCORE: 5-4 Langley
Shots: 29-28 Langley
Power-Plays: Vees 1-2 Langley 0-5
Three Stars: 1) Gage Torrel 2) Brad McClure 3) James Robinson
Attendance: 1,703
The Vees record now slips to 16-7-1-3, and they drop one spot to second in the Interior Division behind the Vernon Vipers; the Vipers won 4-0 Friday over Merritt. The Vees have now lost three of their last four home games and their home record now sits at 9-2-0-2. Brad McClure’s two goals and four points move him into second in the BCHL scoring race behind Salmon Arm’s Landon Smith, who has twenty-one goals and forty-five points; six points ahead of McClure.
The Vees will look to get back in the win column tomorrow when they host the Chilliwack Chiefs at the SOEC; puck drop is 6pm. This is the first of two meetings between the two non-divisional opponents, as they wrap up the season series in Chilliwack on December 13th. Saturday’s game is sponsored by Home Hardware in conjunction with the Canadian Cancer Society.
News from © iNFOnews, 2013