Strong final home games

It was a strong showing for the Penticton Vees' final weekend at home for the regular season, with nearly 11,000 people in attendance over three games.

Those three games went back-to-back-to-back, on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon, which head coach Fred Harbinson says can make it difficult to attract big crowds.

"When you see a weekend like that, when you have three home games in basically two-and-a-half days, and it's so hard to attract fans all over the country right now," he said. "It's a feather in the entire organization's cap."

The weekend finished off on Sunday with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Victoria Grizzlies, with a strong final play from James Miller.

"It was an outstanding play, and a player that I kind of challenged earlier in the game," Harbinson said. "As a coach, you've got to push certain buttons or whatever, and James, guys that have been around me long enough know that the type of guys that thrive are the guys that have thick skin and can handle and kind of push back."

Now, the Vees have just two more games left after a 5-1 win over the West Kelowna Warriors Tuesday night.

"It doesn't matter if it's game number one, or game number 58, we try to win every game we play, we try to do it the right way," Harbinson said, noting that with the division title clinched, it's more about how the team plays.

"I loved the way we played on Friday and Sunday, obviously a bit to be desired for chunks of the game on Saturday, but, you know what, there's been a lot more good than bad over the last three, four weeks."

With playoffs kicking off in a few weeks, and the Vees hosting the Western Canada Cup, the SOEC has a package deal for fans who are looking to watch just the Vees games.

"When you look at our attendance this year being basically 3,000 a game, which is unprecedented in Junior A hockey I think ever, we've been continually over the last couple of years trying to get creative on how we get more and more people in our building to enjoy our hockey," Harbinson said.

"We're trying to make it as affordable and easy as possible for these families and people of Penticton to enjoy something that might come around once in a lifetime."