Warriors, Vipers close BCHL season on high note
Both the Vernon Vipers and West Kelowna Warriors closed out the B.C. Hockey League regular season with a pair of weekend wins, while the Penticton Vees stumbled to the finish line with a pair of losses. The Vees (38-10-3-3) still finished first in the Interior Conference with 82 points and, as the No. 1 seed, with face off against No. 8 Prince George Spruce Kings (16-35-3-0) in the first round of the playoffs. The Warriors (33-10-11-0) finished with 77 points to become the No. 2 seed and will face the No. 7 Cranbrook Bucks (20-31-30). The Vipers (33-19-2-0) finished with 68 points to become the No. 4 seed and will face off against the No. 5 Trail Smoke Eaters (28-20-6-0) The No. 3 Salmon Arm Silverbacks will take on the No. 6 Merritt Centennials in the final Interior Conference playoff series. The playoffs begin Friday . All rounds are best-of-seven series. In the Coastal Conference, the No. 1 Surrey Eagles (44-8-2-0) earned the BCHL regular season pennant with 90 points. The Eagles will face off against the No. 8 Cowichan Valley Capitals. The No. 2 Chilliwack Chiefs will play No. 7 Langley Rivermen. The No. 3. Alberni Valley Bulldogs will meet No. 6 Coquitlam Express. And No. 4 Victoria Grizzlies will square off against No. 5 Nanaimo Clippers. The final round of the playoffs for the Fred Page Cup opens May 17. The winner will square off against the top club from the BCHL’s Alberta division in a best-of-three series beginning May 31. Surrey forwards Caden Cranston and Aaron Schwartz finished first and second in league scoring with 86 and 81 points, respectively. Felix Caron of the Warriors was third with 31 goals and 69 points. Vees’ goaltender Will Ingemann finished the season with the BCHL’s best goalsagainst average (1.85) and most shutouts (six).
West Kelowna 5 Penticton 1
In the final game of the regular season Sunday afternoon, the Warriors got the last laugh with a 5-2 win over the host Vees. The Warriors jumped out to an early 2-0 lead less than four minutes into the game and never looked back. They stretched the lead to 5-0 early in the third period, before Anselmo Rego got the Vees on the board and scuttled Matthew DellaRusso’s shutout bid. Trent Wilson scored twice for the Warriors and picked up an assist. Sean Keohane, Jack Pridham and Jackson Kyrkostas contributed singles. Andrew Ness took the loss in Penticton’s net as his team was outshot 38-29 in front of about 2,700 fans at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
West Kelowna 4 Powell River 3
A four-goal lead just barely held up as the Warriors played host Friday night to the Powell River Kings. The Warriors were up 4-0 midway through the third period, before Kings scored three goals in a little over eight minutes to make it 4-3. Shots were 35-22 in favour of West Kelowna, which got goals from Dylan Krayer, Felix Caron, Carter Oakenfold and Trent Wilson. Rorke Applebee was the winning goalie. Powell River had former Warrior Justin Katz between the pipes and got two goals from Zander Stewart, plus a single from Christian Maro.
Trail 4 Penticton 2
Trail netminder Teagan Patrick turned aside 47 shots as his Smoke Eaters stole a 4-2 win Friday night in Penticton. The Smokies were outshot 49-18, but managed to hold leads of 1-0 and 3-0 at the intermissions. Callum Arnott and Francesco Dell’Elce struck for Penticton early in the third, but it wasn’t enough. Will Ingemann took the loss in the Vees’ net. Mathieu Cobetto-Roy, Isaac Fectau, Maxim Potvin and Jason Stefanek scored for Trail.
Prince George 6 Vernon 5 (OT)
Skogen Schrott was the overtime hero Friday as the Spruce Kings came from behind to earn a 6-5 win. Schrott fired the winner just over three minutes into overtime to settle what was a high-flying affair that saw shots fall 29-27 in Prince George’s favour. The Spruce Kings were up 5-2 early in the third period, before the Vipers reeled off three straight goals to send it to overtime. Noah Dorey score twice, while Julian Facchinelli, Carson McGinley and Hank Cleaves added singles for the Vipers, who had Ethan David between the pipes. Owen Goodbrand, with two, and Linden Makow, Luca Primerano and Kazumo Sasaki had the other goals for the Spruce Kings, who had Charlie Zolin in net.
Vernon 6 Powell River 2
After a cautious opening 40 minutes, the Vipers exploded with four goals in the third period to down the visiting Kings 6-2 on Saturday night. Following a scoreless first period, the clubs exchanged goals in the second period to make it 1-1. Vernon went on to strike five times in the final frame to secure the win. The Vipers had a 35-25 edge in shots with Colin Reay between the pipes. Nick Mikan scored a pair for the Vipers, while Isaac Tremblay, Etienne Lessard, Luke Bibby and Bronson Ross netted singles. Adam Mendelson scored both goals for Powell River, which had Vincent Lamberti in net.