Penticton Vees head coach and general manager Fred Harbinson was so pleased with how things went in the first round of the playoffs that he gave his troops a day off on Wednesday.
Just one day though. And there was a catch – the players have to report for practice duty on the weekend.
“We‘ll get right back to business (today) and Friday, and we‘ll schedule some morning practices on the weekend,” Harbinson said.
The Vees dusted off the Merritt Centennials in four straight games in the first round and don‘t play again until opening the second round at home on Tuesday – quite likely against the Westside Warriors.
It‘s worth noting that “home” is the South Okanagan Events Centre. If the series goes the distance, Game 7 would have to be played at venerable old Memorial Arena on Wed., March 17, since singer Reba McEntire is performing at the SOEC the same night.
As for the Vees, they simply got better as the series went along, gutting out 4-2 and 3-1 wins at home before blitzing the Centennials 6-1 and 9-1 in Merritt.
“It was exactly what we needed,” said Harbinson. “Easy in terms of travel and no injuries. We had to play a couple of tight games to start the series and we responded well in a physical environment in Game 3.”
Harbinson credited first-year head coach Luke Pierce with doing a great job of preparing the Centennials.
“They had a good game plan to slow us down,” said Harbinson. “Things got away from them a bit at the end, but Luke has them going in the right direction.”
Harbinson was delighted to get star centre and team captain Denver Manderson back in the lineup after missing the last 10 games of the regular season due to injury. All Manderson did was respond with 10 points in four games.
“We got scoring from up and down the lineup, all of our defencemen contributed and our goaltending was superb,” said Harbinson. “You look at a young kid like (16-year-old forward) Stefan Nicholishen, he played his best hockey all season. It was great to see.”
Harbinson, with a healthy roster for the first time in months, shuffed some of his line combinations and moved players in and out of the lineup. The first of several surprises was putting veteran Ryan Viselli on the big line with Manderson and Beau Bennett.
“You can‘t be predictable in the playoffs,” said Harbinson. “We don‘t sit here and label lines by numbers or anything, we‘re just trying to find the best balanced attack possible. We can throw a lot of different looks out there depending on matchups and who we‘re playing. We may have a few more changes in store going forward.”
ICE CHIPS: Westside leads their series against Trail 3-1 and can wrap it up with a win tonight in West Kelowna. Harbinson plans to scout the game, and as a result, Coach‘s Corner – the Vees weekly online TV show hosted by radio play-by-play man Ryan Pinder at the Kettle Valley Station Pub – will be moved up to 5 p.m. tonight … If Westside wins, the Vernon Vipers, who got a first-round bye, would play the winner of the Salmon Arm-Quesnel series, which was tied 2-2 going into Game 5 on Wednesday.
