On a night they weren‘t at their best, the Penticton Vees were bailed out by their all-star goaltender and their league-leading power play.
Denver Manderson and Beau Bennett notched power play goals and Bonar was sensational with 40 saves as the Vees topped the Westside Warriors 3-1 in Game 1 of the best-of-7 Interior Conference semifinal series Tuesday in front of 1,347 fans at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Alex Szczechura also scored for the Vees who directed 27 shots at Westside goalie Kevin Jebson.
Alex Grieve had the lone reply for the Warriors, who have yet to beat the Vees in five playoff games.
The Okanagan rivals will do it all over again tonight at 7 p.m. at the SOEC before the series shifts to West Kelowna for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Saturday.
Each team fired 14 shots on goal in a freewheeling first period, but there weren‘t many point-blank chances for Bonar and Jebson to contend with.
The Vees managed to outscore the Warriors 2-1 in the second period despite being outshot 16-5 and soundly outworked in the last 10 minutes.
Szczechura put the Vees up at 4:28, neatly redirecting home Paltridge‘s cross-ice pass after Manderson made a good feed to spring Paltridge free down the right.
Warriors defenceman Joel Woznikoski was whistled for a double-minor and Manderson made the visitors pay at the 7:37 mark, taking a feed from Bennett and riflling one past Jebson from the slot.
But the Warriors showed plenty of resolve as they carried the play for the rest of the period. Grieve got finally got them on the board at 13:49, jamming home a rebound of Spencer Humphries shot.
Penticton got a chance late in the period as Joey Holka walked out from behind the net and zipped a shot off the crossbar.
The Vees were back on their heels early in the third period, but a penalty followed by a giveaway allowed them to restore the two-goal lead. Westside‘s Brendan Ellis, who won the top defenceman award in the conference, handed the puck to Bennett near the slot and the BCHL scoring champ made no mistake as he blew a hard wrister past Jebson at 9:49.
At Wesbild Centre in Vernon, two-goal efforts by Rob Short and Braden Pimm powered the Vernon Vipers to a 6-2 win over the Quesnel Millionaires in the opener of the other Interior semifinal.
Cory Kane and Curtis Gedig also scored and Kevin Kraus had three assists for the Vipers, who enjoyed a huge 46-14 edge in shots on goal.
Taylor Holst and Chris Kerr replied for the Millionaires, who trailed 2-1 and 3-1 at the period breaks.
Game 2 of the series goes tonight at 7 p.m. in Vernon.
In the Coastal Conference semifinals, the upstart Nanaimo Clippers defeated the Alberni Valley Bulldogs 3-1 despite being outshot 49-21. Game 2 goes tonight in Alberni.
