Warriors roll over PG
PRINCE GEORGE — The West Kelowna rolled over the Spruce Kings behind a stellar performance by Cole Demers Saturday night.
The Warriors used a three-goal third period and a 29-save performance from Demers to earn a hard-fought 4-2 victory over the Prince George Spruce Kings from Rolling Mix Concrete Arena on Saturday night.
The Warriors got four different goal scorers into the act with Michael Ryan, RJ Murphy, Willie Reim and Jared Marino, all finding the back of the goal as the Warriors snapped a seven-game winless stretch on the road.
The first period was drawn to a scoreless tie as both teams played well defensively and got strong goaltending in the opening twenty minutes of action.
Demers turned aside 13 shots in the first period in the Warriors crease, his busiest of the night, while Spruce Kings netminder Evan DeBrouwer stopped all eight shots he faced.
It took well into the latter point of the second period before the game got its first goal and came courtesy of a scramble that was capitalized by the Warriors.
A 2-on-1 saw Chase Dubois and Willie Reim unable to connect with the puck going off of the end boards off of Reim’s stick and bounced to the right face-off circle for Michael Ryan to slap in for his third goal of the season at the 17:29 mark of the frame and give the Warriors a 1-0 lead heading into the third period.
The Warriors didn’t take long to add to their lead as just 29 seconds into the third frame, Murphy scored his second goal in as many nights and his seventh goal of the season.
A point shot from Jake Harrison went behind the net for an awaiting Murphy who wrapped the puck around on the glove side of DeBrouwer for a 2-0 Warriors lead.
West Kelowna added to their advantage just 1:29 after the Murphy goal with Reim joining the scoring on another scramble at the goalmouth. Reim was standing at the top of the crease and banged in a rebound for his second goal in as many nights and his 6th goal of the season at the 1:58 mark on the power play pushed the Warriors lead to 3-0.
Warriors captain Jared Marino capped off an impressive start to the third period for the visitors with a goal at the 3:58 mark of the frame to extend the lead to 4-0. Marino buried in a pass from the left side for his 8th goal of the season just as a power play came to an end to get the Warriors ahead by four goals.
The Spruce Kings scored a pair of goals to round out the scoring in the third period, starting with a Dustin Manz goal at the 7:44 mark of the period as a nice pass from behind the goal line from Ethan de Jong was received by Manz and put by Demers on the power play to cut the lead to 4-1.
Prince George added one more goal at the end of the game with just 21 seconds remaining as a scramble to the blocker side of Demers that looked like the Warriors goaltender had covered the puck up but the officials thought otherwise as Kyle Johnson got the last touch on the puck and closed out the scoring in a 4-2 Warriors victory.
Demers turned aside 29 of the 31 shots he faced in the game for his 8th victory of the season in the Warriors crease while Evan DeBrouwer stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced in the game in the losing effort. FINAL SCORE: 4-2 Warriors
FINAL SHOTS ON GOAL: 33-31
Warriors
Warriors PP: 1/5
Warriors PK: 4/5
3 Stars:
1) Michael Ryan (1-1-2)
2) Willie Reim (1-0-1)
3) Dustin Manz (1-0-1)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Nolan Welsh (0-0-0)