Monday, May 14, 2012

Penticton wins RBC Cup

The Penticton Vees, which have two Minnesota State recruits amid a wealth of other future college-hockey talent, captured the RBC Cup as Canada's Junior A national champions on Sunday.

The Vees defeated the Woodstock Slammers 4-3 with a last-minute goal by Joey Benik, an Andover  native and St. Cloud State commit.

Penticton was down 3-2 early in the third period, and future Maverick Bryce Gervais scored midway through the period to tie the game at 3.

It's been quite a season for the Vees, who won 54 games and had an amazing 42-game winning streak during the season. As loaded as they are, though, they lost their first two games of the RBC Cup tournament before going on a run to take the title.

Coached by former St. Cloud State assistant Fred Harbison, the Vees have a ton of players you'll see in the college game very soon, including Gervais, Benik and Nick Buchanan, a defenseman committed to Minnesota State. Here are the others:

Wade Murphy, Merrimack
Mario Lucia, Notre Dame
Travis St. Denis, Quinnipiac
Troy Stecher, Nebraska Omaha
Mike Reilly, Minnesota
Steven Fogarty, Notre Dame
Logan Johnston, UMass-Lowell
Ryan Reilly, Minnesota
Curtis Loik, Penn State
Cody DePourcq, Denver
D.J. Jones, Army
Connor Reilly, Minnesota

The Reillys are brothers from Chanhassen. Lucia is the son of Minnesota coach Don Lucia and is from Wayzata. Jones is from Plymouth.

###

Meanwhile in the USHL, Waterloo Black Hawks goalie and MSU commit Stephon Williams had another fine performance, stopping 32 of 33 shots, but he and his team lost 2-0 (with an empty-netter) to the Green Bay Gamblers in Game 2 of the Clark Cup finals on Sunday. The series is tied 1-1. Game 3 is Friday night in Waterloo.

No comments: