Warriors drop weekend pair after shootout win
Just four points made it home with the B.C. Hockey League’s three Okanagan teams following play last weekend.
In their only match of the weekend, the Penticton Vees pulled off a 2-1 comeback win Saturday night in Cranbrook, a night after the Bucks had defeated the West Kelowna Warriors.
The Vernon Vipers split a set with the Wenatchee Wild, while the Warriors lost 3-1 in Cranbrook and 4-1 in West Kelowna, after getting themselves into the win column last Wednesday with a 4-3 shootout victory over the Merritt Centennials.
WEST KELOWNA 4 MERRITT 3 (SO)
A goaltending change seemed to spark the Warriors as they fought back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Merritt Centennials 4-3 in a shootout at Royal LePage Place.
Cayden Hemming came in to replace allstar Justin Katz after Jaxson Murray put the Centennials up 3-0 8:31 into the second period.
Hemming stopped 11 shots he faced the rest of the way. Katz was beaten three times on 13 shots.
Seventeen-year-old Noah Laframboise started the comeback with his first BC Hockey League goal at the 9:54 mark of the second period.
Three minutes later, Ben MacDonald deflected a point shot from Dylan Brooks for his 14th goal of the season and his fourth in four games.
Kailus Green deflected another point shot, this time from Aiden Reeves, to tie the game in the last minute of the middle frame. It was Green’s eighth goal of the season.
The Warriors hit two posts in a tightly played and scoreless third period.
In the Merritt net, Johnny Hicks stopped 38 shots and two of three shooters he faced in the shootout. Hemming stopped all three Merritt shooters in the shootout. Rylee Hlusiak scored only shootout goal to give the Warriors the win.
CRANBROOK 3, WEST KELOWNA 1
It wasn’t the start the Warriors were looking for as they embarked Friday on their first of seven consecutive road games.
After a scoreless first period, the Cranbrook Bucks scored twice in the middle frame to put the Warriors on their heels.
Michael Salandra scored the lone goal for West Kelowna, while netminder Cayden Hamming took the loss with a 25-save performance.
SALMON ARM 4, WEST KELOWNA 1
Katz fended off 41 shots, but it wasn’t enough as his Warriors fell 4-1 on Saturday night to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
Katz faced 20 shots in the first period alone while Ben MacDonald gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead, but their fortune changed in the second period as the Silverbacks poured in three unanswered goals and added an emptynetter late in the third.
West Kelowna (21-12-4-) sits third in the BCHL Interior Conference standings, six points back of the second-place Bucks. The Warriors have dates coming up Friday night in Langley and Saturday night in
Chilliwack.
PENTICTON 2 CRANBROOK 1
The Vees were trailing 1-0 deep in the third period against the Bucks (25-10-1-1), before Jackson Nieuwendyk drew his club even and sent the game to extra time.
Overtime solved nothing, so a five-player shootout was required with Thomas Pichette and Aydar Suniev sealing the win for Penticton.
Luca Di Pasquo, the Vees’ starting netminder, made 19 saves to improve his personal record to 24-3-0-0. His 1.73 goals-against average is tops among all BCHL goaltenders.
The Vees are on the road for games this coming weekend against the Surrey Eagles (23-9-2-1) and Victoria Grizzlies (16-13-4-2).
VERNON 4, WENATCHEE 2
Seiya Tanaka-Campbell scored twice as the Vipers carved out a 4-2 win on Friday night in Wenatchee.
Tanaka-Campbell scored the contest’s first goal with just four minutes left in the opening frame and also scored the game’s last goal with an empty-netter.
Reagan Milburn and Ethan Sundar also tallied for the Vipers, who got a 32-save performance from starting netminder Roan Clarke.
WENATCHEE 4, VERNON 1
The tables turned quickly on the Vipers.
After falling into an early 2-0 deficit, Jonathan Horn scored the Vipers’ only goal midway through the second period of what turned out to be a 4-1 loss to the host Wenatchee Wild on Saturday night. Ean Samoza had a hat-trick for Wenatchee.
The Vipers head to the Kootenays for games Friday in Trail and Saturday in Cranbrook.