The Penticton Vees fell behind early and couldn’t claw all the way back, falling 5-3 to the Blades in Saskatoon on Wednesday night. 

The Vees fall to 37-13-4-4 on the season and will have to wait another game to try and break the CHL expansion wins record set by Longueuil (QMJHL) in the 1982/83 season.

The Blades struck on a powerplay 15 minutes into the first period and then used a bounce off a couple of legs to take a 2-0 lead into the second period. 

After going down 3-0, the Vees found some life with Matteo Danis batting a rebound out of the air for his 24th of the year to make the score 3-1. Sam Drancak deflected an Ethan Weber shot over the shoulder of Saskatoon goaltender Evan Gardner to make it 3-2 heading into the final frame. 

Penticton applied all kinds of pressure late in the third but it would be the Blades who scored on another powerplay and then into an empty net to make the score 5-2. 

Diego Johnson struck late for his 22nd of the year to make the final score 5-3. 

GAME STATS

Shots:

Vees- 30

Blades- 20

Scoring:

Vees- Matteo Danis, Sam Drancak, Diego Johnson

Blades- Jack Kachkowski, Cooper Williams, Tyler Parr, Hunter Laing, Elias Pul

Power Plays:

Vees- 0/2

Blades- 2/6

Goaltending:

Vees- Ethan McCallum – 15/19

Blades- Evan Gardner – 27/30

Up Next: The Vees are in Prince Albert to take on the East leading Raiders on Friday for a 5:00PM PST puck drop.