The Langley Rivermen returned home this past Thursday against the Penticton Vees in their first and only meeting of the 2024-25 season.
It was a back and forth first period, with Penticton getting a couple of good chances in the early going but Bodee Weiss was equal to the task, including a breakaway save on the Vees’ Landon Wright midway through the first period.
Langley went to the power play with 1:35 remaining in the first period, and after a couple of Penticton clearances, the Rivermen’s Jackson Krill carried the puck up the right side into the visitors end, feeding Dalton MacGillivray in front for his 5th of the season, and a 1-0 lead going into the first intermission.
Penticton would get a power play of their own with 5:05 gone in the second period, converting in tight off a rebound and added another 1:28 later to take the lead, off a one timer on the left wing from their leading goal scorer Max Heise.
The Vees would add another with 5:35 remaining in the second, and head to the third period up 3-1.
Langley would score twice in the span of three minutes to tie things up early in the third, thanks to Ryan Schelling and Sebastian Bradshaw.
The game would be back and forth from there on out, including Langley almost taking the lead twice. But it was Penticton who got the winner on a redirection in front with 5:04 to go in the third.
Saturday’s game was the third meeting of the season between Langley and Prince George.
Langley got the scoring going early and often, as Ethan Merner scored on a rebound in front of the Spruce Kings net with 4:02 gone in the first period.
1:41 later Ryan Schelling would fire one along the ice past Spruce Kings goaltender Carter Wishart for his 16th of the year and a 2-0 Rivermen lead.
The Spruce Kings would cut Langley’s lead to one on a power play goal from Kazumo Sasaki.
Langley would score two goals in a minute and 42 seconds courtesy of Sebastian Bradshaw and Dalton MacGillivray making it 4-1 Rivermen with 7:13 remaining in the opening frame.
Prince George scored another later on in the first period, ensuring they would trail by just two going into the second period.
Ilya Rogovksy would make it 5-2 Langley 46 seconds into the second, before Prince George would make it 5-3 midway through the period. Luke Pfoh would score 51 seconds after Prince George’s third goal, his 6th of the season on a great feed from Rogovsky.
Nicolas Papineau would make it 6-4 Rivermen with his first BCHL goal, with 5 minutes remaining in the second period, ensuring his team would go into the final frame trailing by just two.
Papineau got his second of the game 3:06 into the third on another power play, and it would be a one goal game with plenty of time left in the game.
Langley would kill off another Prince George power play in the middle of the third period, but Zachary Benayon would get his first BCHL goal to ensure the game would finish in his team’s favour. MacGillivray would add on his second of the game and his 7th goal of the season, and the Rivermen would hold on for an 8-5 win.
