Warriors out of last chances

Game 4 took place last night in Merritt with the West Kelowna Warriors trailing the series 3-0

The West Kelowna Warriors season might be over by now — or the local junior A team is getting ready for Game 5 of its BC Hockey League playoff series with the Merritt Centennials.

The Warriors and Centennials played Game 4 of their first-round playoff series last night with Merritt leading the series 3-0.

The game took place after the deadline for this issue of the Westside Weekly.

If the Warriors did lose and their season is over, fans now know it wasn’t their final game ever.

The club announced during Game 1 of the series on Friday that it’s sticking around after a near-move to North Delta.

“This coming September, the West Kelowna Warriors will be playing hockey right here,” was the message relayed from owner Mark Cheyne, who wasn’t in attendance but phoned in the update from Palm Springs.

The half-full crowd cheered and celebrated amongst themselves upon hearing that the reigning RBC Cup national champion team wouldn’t be relocating — or folding.

“It was really hard because we actually know the owner personally. We play ball against him and with him,” said Deanne Kieke, a longtime season-ticket holder with her husband, Peter.

“As a fan, we were devastated at the thought that they were going to leave, but as friends, understanding what he’s gone through, we recognized what he had to do. But even we didn’t know what was going on, so walking into the building tonight we were on edge just like everybody else and the tears flowed as soon as it was announced.”

Cheyne had a deal in place to move the franchise to the Lower Mainland, but that fell through recently.

On the ice, the Warriors staged an entertaining series opener but dropped a 6-5 decision to the visiting Centennials.

Merritt silenced West Kelowna’s restless fan base in the early stages, jumping out to a 2-0 lead, but the Warriors battled back to briefly lead 4-3 in the third period.

In Games 2, also at Royal LePage Place, the Warriors overcame a 4-0 deficit to force overtime, but still fell into a 2-0 series hole with Saturday’s 5-4 triple-OT loss.

Those of the 912 fans in attendance who made an early exit missed a thrilling comeback that fell short when Stephan Seeger pounced on a rebound at 3:07 of the third overtime period to give the Centennials the win.

Saturday’s game played out much like Friday’s opener as the Centennials again jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half of the first period.

Merritt made it 3-0 late in the second period and 4-0 early in the third period before West Kelowna rallied in dramatic fashion.

Just 16 seconds after Brett Jewell netted the Cents’ second power-play goal of the game, Parm Dhaliwal followed up his own rebound off the rush to get the Warriors on the board at 2:55 of the third period.

Quin Foreman, with his third goal of the series, cut the deficit to 4-2 at 10:04, and defenceman Jake Harrison made it a one-goal game just one minute 21 seconds later with 8:35 remaining in regulation.

West Kelowna got another boost when Merritt’s Tyrell Buckley took a major penalty for checking from behind.

Chase Dubois capitalized on that five-minute power play at 13:05, and the Warriors survived a late penalty kill of their own to get into overtime.

The two scoreless extra periods saw Merritt outshoot West Kelowna 7-4 in the first, while the Warriors held a 15-10 edge in the second.

Merritt scored on its fourth shot of the third overtime — West Kelowna had managed only one — but the Warriors finished with a 67-46 advantage overall, including that dominant 20-5 third period.

Jacob Berger made 63 saves for Merritt, while Cole Demers stopped 41 shots for West Kelowna.

In Game 3 at Merritt, the Centennials dominated and didn’t let up in prevailing 6-2.

If the defending RBC Cup national champion Warriors were successful in staving off elimination Tuesday night in Merritt, Game 5 would be back at Royal LePage Place Thursday at 7 p.m.