Vees beat Cents for 6th time

Photo: Penticton Vees

The Vees celebrating a 3-2 win against the Centennials at the Nicole Valley Memorial Arena on Friday.

The Penticton Vees have had their way with the Merritt Centennials this season.

Friday night, the Vees earned a 3-2 come-from-behind win in Merritt — also giving them a 6-0 sweep of their regular season series.

The Centennials got off on the right foot offensively with a pair of early goals.

Nick Wicks scored for the Cents just 17 seconds after opening puck drop, the fastest goal any team has scored on the Vees to begin a game this season. Colten Gerlib doubled the home team's lead just past the midway mark of the first.

Taylor Ward pulled the Vees back within one goal late in the first, scoring for his sixth time in seven games.

Penticton trailed by a goal until early in the third period when Wyatt Sloboshan scored on the powerplay.

Michael Campoli pulled the curtains down with a go-ahead goal in the dying minutes of the third. After not scoring for more than four years, the stay-at-home-defender Campoli now has two goals in his past five games — both game winners for the Vees.

Vees goalie Adam Scheel stopped 29 of 31 shots, earning his BCHL-leading 22nd win of the season.

The wheels on the Vees' bus will keep rolling on Saturday as the team heads to the Shuswap to face the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, which will be their fifth of six-straight road games.

Both teams enter play red hot of late. The Vees, who are 32-10-2-3, have one loss in their past 12 games, and remain atop the BCHL standings.

The Silverbacks meanwhile, have won seven straight games and are now 22-23-3-1, and have substantially distanced themselves from the BCHL's basement in the process.