Warriors go down Àghting

Merritt ties game with seconds to go and wins it early in overtime — Warriors say tying goal never crossed the line

The West Kelowna Warriors season came to an end on Tuesday night with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Merritt Centennials in Game 4 of their bestof-seven first-round series at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.

The Warriors lost two games in overtime and the series opener by one goal. Only Game 3, a 62 Merritt win, wasn’t close as the Centennials swept the reigning national championships.

In the fourth and Ànal game, the Warriors were less than 30 seconds away from victory, but a disputed Merritt goal sent the game into overtime.

With Merritt goalie Jake Berger on the bench for the extra attacker, Tyler Ward’s shot deÁected off a Warriors defender and hit the post on the glove side of Demers before the puck slid back to him. The red light went on, the Centennials celebrated, but the Warriors maintained the puck never crossed the line.

After some talk by the ofÀcials at centre ice, the goal was allowed with Stephan Seeger getting the credit.

The hometown Centennials put the game away quickly in overtime with Seeger scoring his second overtime winner of the series 2:02 into the extra frame on a rebound.

Josh Bolding started the game for the Warriors, making 14 saves on 16 shots in the Àrst period before Cole Demers relieved him and stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced in the defeat. Jake Berger made 43 saves on 46 shots in the Centennials net for the victory.

After giving up the opening goal for the fourth straight game, the Warriors responded with three straight in the middle of the opening period.

West Kelowna tied the game just past the midway point of the frame with Parm Dhaliwal knocking the puck in on the blocker side of Centennials goalie Berger.

The Warriors took their second lead of the series about three minutes later on a set play off a face-off just outside of Merritt defensive zone. Connor Sodergren won the face-off back to Jonas Gordon who fed a streaking Jake Harrison. Harrison gained the zone and sniped a shot from the left-wing face-off circle for his third of the playoffs and a 2-1 Warriors advantage.

Michael Ryan doubled the Warriors lead just 36 seconds later with a pass from below the goal line by Sodergren that found Ryan open in front of the net.

In the Ànal minutes of the Àrst period came to an end, Brett Jewell got the Centennials to within a goal. Tyler Ward came into the zone off the right wing and his shot was stopped by the left pad of Bolding but the rebound was kicked to Jewell beat Bolding on the blocker side.

There was no scoring in the second period. Demers came in to play goal for the Warriors to start the period. He made 16 saves on each of the 16 shots he faced in the second period while Centennials netminder Jake Berger turned aside 13 second period shots a after facing 23 in the Àrst period.

The third period opened with the Centennials applying some pressure but unable to crack past Demers and the Warriors until the controversial goal late in the game.