Afternoon game agrees with Warriors
More Family Day matinees, please. The West Kelowna Warriors used a four-point effort from Michael
Salandra and another multi-goal game from Riley Sharun to beat the Merritt Centennials 9-1 Monday afternoon at Royal LePage Place.
The scoring barrage started early with Luke Devlin burying his eighth goal of the season on a power play at the 2:07 mark.
Riley Sharun added to the lead at
5:21, as part of the Warriors five-goal opening frame, with his seventh goal of the season coming on the power play as well.
Rylee Hlusiak with his 13th goal of the season, Jaiden Moriello with his team-leading 21st and Chris Duclair with his eighth also scored to give the Warriors a 5-0 late in the period.
Connor Farren scored the lone goal of the game for the Centennials at the 16:50 mark of the opening frame.
West Kelowna continued the scoring frenzy early in the second period with two goals in 57 seconds at the beginning of the frame.
Sharun scored his second of the afternoon just 36 seconds into the period before Brennan Nelson potted his ninth tally of the season at the 1:23 mark to give the Warriors a 7-1 lead, which would hold into the 3rd period.
Devlin added his second of the contest at the 15:25 mark of the third. Less than a minute after that, Salandra potted his 14th goal of the season to complete a four-point afternoon.
The win capped a good weekend for the Warriors, which actually got off to a bad start. The Warriors lost 8-2 in Penticton Friday, but beat Trail Smoke Eaters 5-2 on Saturday.
The Vees scored early and often Friday night in the rout over the Warriors.
Owen Simpson opened the scoring just 38 seconds after the puck dropped
as the Vees took a 6-1 lead into the first intermission.
Simpson finished with a team-high three points. The Vees also got goals from Jackson Nieuwendyk, Billy Norcross, Brett Moravec, Josh Nadeau, Aydar Suniev, Spencer Smith and Beanie Richter.
Moriello and Ben MacDonald replied for West Kelowna.
Despite the lopsided score, the shots were only 29-24 in favour of Penticton.
Luca Di Pasquo picked up the win for the Vees, while Angelo Zol and Cayden Hamming split the loss for the Warriors.
Against Trail, Sharun netted a pair, while Salandra and Kailus Green added singles for the Warriors, who led 2-1 and 3-1 at the intermissions.
Hamming turned aside 24 of 26 shots fired at him in the West Kelowna cage.
Penticton’s scoring machine kept rolling Saturday night in Merritt, with Simpson once again notching the first goal in a 7-2 win.
Suniev, with two, and Norcross, Nieuwendyk, Josh Nadeau and Bradly Nadeau also tallied for the Vees, who led 3-0 and 5-1 at the intermissions.
Hank Levy stopped 20 of 22 shots in Penticton’s win, while Connor Sullivan took the loss with a 36-save effort.
The Vees won a Family Day matinee by a 5-1 score over Cranbrook Bucks.
Vernon Vipers scratched out a 6-5 shootout win on first leg of a road trip Friday in Powell River.
The Vipers were 3-2 losers in overtime Saturday in Nanaimo and came home to beat Trail 3-2 in overtime in another Family Day matinee.
The Warriors (24-16-4-0) will continue their five-game home stand with another visit from the Trail Smoke Eaters (17-21-2-3) on Friday night. Faceoff is at 7 p.m.
On Sunday, the Warriors host
Merritt in a 2:30 p.m. matinee.
Tickets are available at the Warriors website, in-person at the Warriors office or at the box office at
Royal LePage Place before the game.