Photo: Cherie Morgan

The Penticton Vees are BCHL regular season champions. The Vees secured the BCHL’s Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy after their 5-2 win over the Cranbrook Bucks, Friday at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

The Vees also won their 13^th consecutive Interior Conference regular season pennant and will be the top seed throughout the 2025 BCHL Fred Page Cup Playoffs.

Rookie Eli McKamey had a pair of goals in Friday’s win and his linemate Luke Posthumus finished with three points (1G, 2A). Max Heise and Ben Merrill also scored for the Vees, who won their seventh in a row and extended their point streak to 13 games (11-0-2-0).

Penticton came back from an early 1-0 deficit, as they got goals from Posthumus and Heise in the first period as they led 2-1 after 20 minutes. After Cranbrook scored just 36 seconds into the game, Posthumus tied it 1-1 with his 25^th of the season at the two-minute mark. Heise then gave the Vees their first lead with his power play goal at 10:55. Heise scored on a Vees’ five-on-three.

Cranbrook’s Bryce Sookro tied the game 2-2 midway through the second on a Bucks’ power play goal at 9:34, but Penticton had an answer for that too.

McKamey scored twice in just three and half minutes to put the Vees up 4-2. His first broke a 2-2 tie at 12:15, as he picked the corner after he cut across the zone on a drop pass from Posthumus. Then he shoveled in a backhand on the doorstep after a feed from behind the net by Geroge Stavrianeas at 15:49 than made it 4-2. McKamey scoring his 14^th and 15^th goals of the season in under in four minutes.

Merrill finished off the three-goal second period by the Vees with his 15^th at 16:53 that made it 5-2. Louie Wehmann made a great dish to Merrill charging down the middle, who redirected the pass over the goalie’s glove.

GAME NOTES

Luke Posthumus’ three points Friday was his first three-point game this season for the Vees. Eli McKamey now has four goals in his last five games. Matthew Biotti has posted back-to-back four-point games. Ryden Evers had an assist Friday and now has 10 points in the last three games. The Vees improved their home record to 20-1-5-0.

GAME STATS 

Shots: Vees- 36 Bucks-25

Scoring: Eli McKamey (2), Luke Posthumus, Max Heise, Ben Merrill

Goaltending: Will Ingemann (W)- 50:02, 19/21

                        Ethan Buenaventura- 9:58, 4/4

Vees Power Play: 1/2

Vees Penalty Kill: 1/2

Three Stars:

1) Eli McKamey (2G)

2) Luke Posthumus (1G, 2A)

3) Matthew Biotti (2A)

Next Game: Saturday, March 29^th, versus Salmon Arm Silverbacks, 6:00 pm

Tesla CEO Elon Musk's losing streak continued on Wednesday.

Hours after Republicans in Wisconsin lost a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin where Musk spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money, shares of his flagship electric car company fell upon news that it had badly missed Wall Street estimates for the number of vehicles it had delivered in the first quarter of 2025.

As reported by Market Watch, Tesla revealed that "it delivered more than 336,000 vehicles during the first quarter, down from 387,000 deliveries a year ago."

To put this number into context, Market Watch notes that it "was well below the average analyst estimate compiled by FactSet of 404,000 vehicles" and it "was also lower than the 'whisper' number, or what Wall Street was quietly expecting, with even the most bullish analyst projecting a number in the 360,000 range."

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Although Tesla blamed the disappointing deliveries on what Market Watch describes as "the changeover to refreshed Model Y production lines" that "led to several weeks of lost production," it's also a reality that the company has been the target of a concerted boycott campaign led by progressive groups to protest Musk's role as the head of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.

Sales of Tesla in Europe have fallen off a cliff in recent months, as car buyers on that continent have revolted against Musk's support for far-right political parties such as Germany's Alternative für Deutschland.