Start Twenty-three seconds!
That's all it took for the Penticton Vees to grab momentum and ultimately skate to a decisive 7-2 victory before nearly 1,000 fans Friday at Royal LePage Place.
Trailing 1-0 and going a man down late in the opening period the Vees took advantage of two breakdowns by the Warriors power-play and scored a pair of goals on odd man rushes 23 seconds apart.
They grabbed the momentum and the Warriors were never able to get it back.
"Winning and losing is infectious and it's the same way as momentum. You make a quick mistake and you can't get it back, certainly against a team like this," says Warriors coach Rylan Ferster.
"We had good energy and I thought we did some good things early on and you have two little lapses like that, and we talked about it, you make mental errors like that and the puck's in your net."
The Warriors opened the scoring 4:44 into the game. Reid Simmonds stole the puck from Travis St. Denis in the neutral zone, busted down the right win and rifled a wrist shot from the right circle that hit the bar and dropped in.
They kept the speedy Vees at bay for much of the opening period until the Vees penalty kill turned the tide.
St. Denis led the way offensively for the Vees scoring once and adding three assists. Mario Lucia scored twice while Ryan Reilly, Steven Fogarty, Connor Reilly and Bryce Gervais added singles.
Max French, in his first game back after missing nine with an injury scored the other Warriors goal with a deft deflection from the slot that just went in under the cross bar.
Brennan Clark also returned to the line-up after missing seven games due to injury, however, as has been the case for much of the season, when one player returns, another goes out.
Defenceman Michael King was a game time scratch with a lower body injury.
King will travel to Prince George with the club and Ferster hopes he can go Saturday night.
The late injury forced the Warriors to play one under the roster limit of 20.
The Warriors head north seventh in the Interior Conference standings, six points in back of fifth place Prince George and nine behind Vernon and Chilliwack who share third.
Ferster says these two games, Saturday and Sunday in PG, are key games even though they are only games 26 and 27 in a 60 game schedule.
"I think they are important. There's no secret where we are. Only four teams make the playoffs so wins are huge for us right now. We can't go up there and come back empty.”
The Warriors will return home to host the Vees Tuesday, Vernon Friday and Prince George again Saturday.
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