Warriors season ends with overtime defeat
West Kelowna lost 3 times to Merritt by 1 goal, twice in OT
The defending champions are done early.
The West Kelowna Warriors, league and national champions a year ago, were eliminated from the BCHL playoffs Tuesday with a 4-3 overtime loss in Merritt.
The Centennials won the best-of-seven opening round series 4-0.
For the fourth straight game in the series, the Centennials opened the scoring — Michael Regush beating Warriors goalie Josh Bolding at 3:59 of the first period.
West Kelowna tied the game at 10:44, with Parm Dhaliwal knocking the puck home on the blocker side of Centennials netminder Jake Berger.
The Warriors took just their second lead of the series three minutes later. Connor Sodergren won a faceoff back to Jonas Gordon, who passed to a streaking Jake Harrison. Harrison gained the zone and sniped a shot from the left-wing face-off circle for his third of the playoffs and a 2-1 Warriors lead.
Michael Ryan doubled the lead just 36 seconds later, sliding the puck through Berger’s legs to give the Warriors their first two-goal lead of the series at 3-1.
Brett Jewell got the Centennials within a goal in the final minute of the period.
Bolding, an affiliated player, was relieved by Cole Demers to start the second period after making 14 saves on 16 shots.
Demers stopped all 16 shots he faced in the second period, while Berger stopped all 13 that came his way in the Centennials net.
The Centennials applied pressure in the third period, and were finally able to beat Demers with just 26.6 seconds left in regulation.
The goal was controversial, to say the least.
With Berger on the bench for an extra attacker, Tyler Ward took a shot from the mid-point that deflected off a Warriors defender and hit the post on the glove side of Demers before the puck slid back to him.
The red light behind the Warriors goal went on, despite debate whether the puck crossed the goal-line. The Centennials began to celebrate the apparent goal while the referees got together at centre ice. After a brief conversation, the official pointed to centre ice signalling a good goal.
Stephan Seeger got credit for the goal, tying the game at 3-3 and sending the teams to overtime for the second time in the series.
Extra time did not last long as, for the second time in the series, Seeger scored the overtime winner. The goal came 2:02 into the extra frame off a rebound, giving the Centennials a 4-0 series win and ending the Warriors season.
Demers finished with 28 saves for the Warriors, while Berger made 43 saves for the Centennials.
ICE CHIPS: The three stars were Seeger, Ward and Regush . . . . Attendance was 637. . . The Centennials won the first two games in West Kelowna — Game 1 by a score of 6-5 and Game 2 by a score of 5-4 in triple overtime — then won 6-2 in Game 3 in Merritt.