Final faceoff for Vees, Chiefs

Photo: Dustin Godfrey

The Penticton Vees are heading to Chilliwack's Prospera Centre Tuesday evening for their final faceoff against the Chiefs for the Fred Page Cup.

The winner of tonight's game will take the BCHL's top title, but both teams will still advance to the Western Canada Cup playoffs to be held in Penticton starting Saturday.

It'll be the first time the BCHL playoffs finals have gone to game seven since 2010, following a 3-2 overtime win for the Chiefs. That win came with a three-point comeback in the last half-hour of the game, with the Vees leading the game 2-0 heading into the third.

The Vees are heading into the final game with some game-seven experience, having gone head-to-head with both the Vernon Vipers and the Merritt Centennials for game sevens in previous rounds of the playoffs.

If previous games in this series are any indication, an early lead is no assurance, and, if you're superstitious, may even be a bad omen.

In game four in Penticton last Wednesday, the Vees overtook Chilliwack 4-3 after going down three points halfway through the second. To follow that, the Chiefs had back-to-back comeback games, with a 4-2 win in Chilliwack on Saturday and a 3-2 win in Penticton last night. Both of those games saw the Chiefs down early on.

The Vees will need to keep an eye on Jordan Kawaguchi with the Chiefs, who has not only been the most prolific playoffs points-getter since 2004.

In front of the nets, Chiefs goaltender Mark Sinclair has slightly widened a sliver of a gap between his stats and Vees goalie Mat Robson.

Sinclair is holding at a 0.919 save percentage and 2.29 goals-against average versus Robson's 0.917 and 2.33.

Game seven starts at 7 p.m. at Prospera Centre in Chilliwack.