The Penticton Vees played their annual Peaches Cup intrasquad game on Friday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre with Team Blue topping Team White by a score of 6-3.
A week before the exhibition season kicks off, the Vees played their annual Peaches Cup intrasquad game, featuring both rostered and affiliate players for the 2021/22 season.
In some players first game-like action in over a year and a half, the pace was high all night with both teams showing strong energy from the opening puck drop. Thomas Pichette was first to kick off the scoring, snapping a shot past the glove side of Team White goaltender Colin Purcell just under 9 minutes into the game to give Team Blue a 1-0 lead.
Ryan Hopkins chipped in from the backend with a marker for Team White to even the score heading into the 2nd period. Hopkins was given a pass from the right-wing side off the stick of Bradley Nadeau and snuck it past Team Blue goaltender Kaeden Lane to tie the game 1-1 moving into the middle stanza.
The 2nd period was dominated by Team Blue as they scored twice to take a two-goal lead with Casey McDonald making a nice play to give his team the lead back. McDonald gathered the puck inside the right face-off circle and toe-dragged around the defender and snapped a shot past the blocker side of Purcell to give Team Blue a 2-1 lead.
Josh Nadeau added to the scoring to give Team Blue a two-goal advantage late in the period on a play that included Pichette and veteran Luc Wilson, a line that was very good all night. Nadeau gathered the puck in the right face-off circle and zipped a shot past the blocker side of Purcell to give Team Blue a 3-1 lead.
Tij Iginla added his name to the score sheet in the 3rd period with the first of two goals in the final period, getting a feed from Smyth Rebman in the left face-off circle across the ice to Iginla as he buried a shot through Purcell to push Team Blue ahead by a 4-1 tally.
Team White, coached by Fred Harbinson and Cam Barker, mounted a comeback and got themselves back into the game with Jackson Nieuwendyk wrapping the puck around the glove side of Lane and pushed it past the goal line for a 4-2 game.
Team White got themselves back to within a goal courtesy of a great pass from Bradley Nadeau, who chipped a loose puck to the middle of the ice with Beanie Richter skating through the middle and flipping a backhand shot up and over the glove side of Lane to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Iginla struck again with his second goal of the game and did so in nice fashion as he buried a shot off the rush on the right side, wristed a shot over the glove side of Purcell that pushed Team Blue’s lead to 5-3.
Ethan Mann finished the scoring off in the game with an empty net marker in the final minute to solidify the score in favour of Team Blue in a 6-3 fashion.
