Warriors, Vees ready for the Okanagan final everyone wanted
Christophe Farmer scored a hat trick and Felix Trudeau contributed three assists as the West Kelowna Warriors scored five unanswered goals to beat the Salmon Arm Silverbacks 6-3 and win their second-round series in five games, April 22. They now advance to the Interior Conference final against the Penticton Vees later this week.
Salmon Arm got off to a hot start when Daniel Panetta scored 5:27 into the game, but Chase Dafoe replied for West Kelowna just over two minutes later.
The ‘Backs would reclaim the lead on an Isaac Lambert goal with five minutes to go in the period to take a 2-1 lead into the break.
Noah Serdachny increased the Salmon Arm lead 43 seconds into period number two, but the Warriors got two goals from Farmer to knot it 3-3 at intermission.
In the third, Elan Bar Lev Wise gave West Kelowna its first lead of the game with a power-play marker midway through the period. The Warriors would finish things off with two empty-net goals, one by Farmer for the hat trick and another by Evans.
West Kelowna goalie Johnny Derrick stopped 18 shots to earn the win, while Salmon Arm netminder Owen Say stopped 36 of 40 shots. Brandon Santa Juana had two assists for the Silverbacks in the loss.
The No. 3 Warriors will face their Interior rivals, the No. 1-seeded Vees, Friday and Saturday in Penticton. Games 3 and 4 in West Kelowna are set for May 2 and May 4.
BROADCASTER PULLED MID-GAME
LANGLEY — A BCHL broadcaster is apologizing after being pulled off the air midway through a game for making a racist comment about a player.
Alberni Valley Bulldogs colour commentator Bruce MacDonald was calling a playoff game against the Langley Rivermen on Friday when he asked whether Rivermen forward Owen Kim speaks English.
The comment came after Kim was involved in a dust-up in the second period.
Play-by-play broadcaster Evan Hammond immediately said MacDonald had gone too far and the colour commentator was taken off the air. MacDonald issued a statement on Twitter on Saturday, saying he was “deeply sorry” for the hurt he had caused Kim, his family and others.
“No one should be made to feel that way and I take full responsibility for my racist words,” the statement said. “I will do whatever I can and is asked of me to make this right. Racism has no place in hockey or anywhere else in the world.”
The BCHL said the league has “zero tolerance for this type of behaviour” and that MacDonald has been banned from any future broadcasts.
RIVERMEN 5, BULLDOGS 2
Riley Wallack potted a pair of goals, Max Dukovac had a goal and three assists and Ajeet Gundarah stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced as Langley defeated Alberni Valley in Game 6 to advance.
The Rivermen scored on both of their power-play opportunities while the Bulldogs went one-for-two with the man advantage.
Langley will now take on the Nanaimo Clippers in the Coastal Conference finals. Nanaimo will have home-ice advantage as the higher seed.