Warriors ready for Wild ride
Coach just wants to keep focus on the ice as West Kelowna heads to Washington
Coach Brandon West is doing his best to keep the focus on the ice for his West Kelowna Warriors.
The Warriors open their first-round BCHL playoff series on Saturday in Wenatchee, Wash., against the Wild.
And it seemed West was hoping all the talk would revolve around playoff hockey and the excitement that involves. “We’ve flipped the page,” West said. But to do that would ignore some really great headlines.
For example, there have been rumblings throughout the league that Washington State doesn’t have enough qualified referees to officiate Junior A hockey. It’s a problem you might think would be especially obvious during the playoffs.
West had no desire to provide the Wild with bulletin-board material.
“You’re about the 100th person to ask me that, today alone,” he said with a laugh. “What I can say is this, we have to control the things that we can control.… They’re a fast, hard-working hockey team that has the ability to open a game up.”
Wenatchee is defending BCHL champions, and their Town Toyota Center is notoriously inhospitable to visitors. So for West Kelowna to have any success, playing within themselves, and not allowing those U.S. referees a chance to impact the game, will be a top priority.
The Warriors have nobody to blame but themselves if it turns into a circus.
When the teams met on Nov. 24 — a 42 Wild win in Wenatchee — three Warriors and former coach Geoff Grimwood were ejected following a skirmish in front of the West Kelowna net and a late-game fight.
OK, so there’s one piece of business out of the way.
Next, how does West feel about taking this team into the playoffs roughly a month after taking control from the deposed Grimwood?
Has West done anything to galvanize a West Kelowna squad that endured three very public coaching changes this season? Before the year began, Rylan Ferster — the man who guided the Warriors to the 2016 RBC Cup national championship — resigned after Mark Cheyne sold the team to Kim Dobranski.
Grimwood took over, but didn’t get the fulltime job in early September, hours before the season was to begin.
The players staged a walkout in response, posting photos and messages to social media in support of Grimwood.
It worked, and Dobranski hired Grimwood full-time — only to fire him in late January and replace him with West.
West is taking it all in stride.
“I’m trying to deflect that kind of stuff,” the good-natured West said, again laughing.
The coach said his players don’t need any additional reminders of what it would mean to stitch together a long playoff run given the turmoil thus far.
“They’re pretty excited,” he said. “It’s the best time of year ... We live for these types of opportunities.”
WAR ROOM — Wenatchee and West Kelowna split their season series 3-3. … Games 1 and 2 are in Washington on Saturday and Sunday. The series flips to West Kelowna for Games 3, 4 and 5 (if needed) on March 5, 6 and 8. … Wenatchee (32-20-6) was third in the Interior Division while West Kelowna (28-28-2) was sixth. … The Warriors gave up the second most goals in the entire league (220). … The Cowichan Valley Capitals — a playoff wild card — defeated the first-place Penticton Vees 4-1 on Thursday night in the only BCHL playoff game scheduled.