PHOTO: Julie Pringle/Snap Photography
The West Kelowna Warriors return home after a six-game road trip to play their first home game of the year 2018 when they take on the Vernon Vipers at Royal LePage Place on Tuesday night.
Warriors vs. Vipers 2017/18 Schedule:
Saturday, October 28th @ Kal Tire Place (5-2 Vipers) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, November 4th @ Kal Tire Place (5-3 Vipers) (BOXSCORE)
Wednesday, November 15th @ Kal Tire Place (3-2 Vipers/OT) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, November 25th @ Royal LePage Place (4-2 Vipers) (BOXSCORE)
Tuesday, January 16th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Friday, January 26th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
The Warriors and Vipers will play in the fifth of their six-game season series with Vernon earning victories in each of the games. The last time these two teams met was in late November as Vernon came away with a 4-2 win in West Kelowna. Cavin Tilsley and Chase Dubois scored in the defeat for the Warriors while Nik Amundrud made 36 saves on 40 shots in the loss.
West Kelowna comes into Tuesday night with a 21-19-1-1 record and sit 5th in the Interior Division after a weekend south of the border against the Wenatchee Wild where the Warriors picked up a 5-4 overtime victory on Friday night before falling by a 6-0 score on Saturday at the Town Toyota Center. Cole Demers turned aside 26 of the 32 shots he faced in the game for his 5th loss of the season. The shutout was the Warriors third of the season with the others coming against the Trail Smoke Eaters and Penticton Vees.
Warriors Leading Scorers:
Jared Marino (18-26-44)
Chase Dubois (15-19-34)
Michael Ryan (5-27-32)
RJ Murphy (12-17-29)
Ryan Steele (7-22-29)
Warriors defenseman Stephen Kleysen will play in his 100th career regular season BCHL game on Tuesday night against the Vipers. The Winnipeg, Manitoba native has played in all but two games in his BC Hockey League career while registering 14 goals and 43 points from the back end. Kleysen secured a commitment to the University of Niagara for next season along with 211 games of Junior hockey experience between the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL), United States Hockey League (USHL) and BCHL.
For the first time in 2018, the Warriors are back at home at Royal LePage Place after a six-game road trip saw stops in Trail, Victoria, Nanaimo, Port Alberni and Wenatchee. West Kelowna holds a record of 13-6-0-1 along with a +11-goal differential on home ice with 75 goals for and 66 against. The weekday home game also means that there will be cheap beer and 25 cent chicken wings along with Shaw TV Okanagan being on hand to broadcast tonight’s game.
There is some good news for the Warriors when it comes to the injury front as defenseman Jake Harrison returns to the lineup after missing the weekend set of games in Wenatchee with an illness. Forward Parm Dhaliwal will also makes his way back to the lineup after missing 10 games with an injury. The Surrey, BC native has scored 6 goals and 20 points over 28 games played this season and held a three-game point streak before his injury kept him out for over a month.
The Vernon Vipers come into Tuesday’s affair leading the BCHL with a 28-10-4-1 record and sit 1st in the Interior Division and already have qualified for a playoff spot. The Vipers come to West Kelowna after a 2-0 shutout victory over the Cowichan Valley Capitals at Kal Tire Place with Josh Prokop and Jesse Lansdell scoring in the win. Ty Taylor turned aside all 28 of the shots he faced in the game for his 17th win of the season and a league leading 6th shutout.
Vipers Leading Scorers:
Jimmy Lambert (15-30-45)
Jagger Williamson (16-27-43)
Brett Stapley (17-23-40)
Michael Ufberg (5-33-38)
Jesse Lansdell (11-26-37)
It is with great sadness that Vipers owner Dr. Duncan Wray passed away last Thursday with the entire BCHL celebrating the life of a truly exceptional man. Mr. Wray oversaw seven BCHL championships, six Doyle Cup championship and four RBC Cup National Championships with the Vipers while owning the team since 1992. He served on the BCHL Board of Governors since his ownership began in 1992 and was Chairman of the Board before his passing. He absence has been and will continue to be greatly missed as the entire Warriors organization pass along their thoughts, prayers and condolences to the Wray family and the Vipers organization. There will be a brief speech and moment of silence held ahead of tonight’s game in honour of Dr. Duncan Wray.
The Vipers sit atop of the BCHL standings with 61 points and are 5th in the league in goals for at 147 this season. Where Vernon has really impressed has been defensively with just 90 goals against in their 43 games played, tied with the Penticton Vees for the fewest goals allowed in the league. Vernon has won all four meetings of the season series against the Warriors so far this season while outscoring them by a 17-9 margin in those four contests.
Vernon’s goaltending has been the best in the league with both Ty Taylor and Anthony Yamnitsky provided strong performances from the crease. Taylor leads the league in both goals against average (1.82) and save percentage (0.932) as well as shutouts with 6 this season, three more than any other netminder. Yamnitsky has been very good in the blue paint as well with a 2.29 GAA and a 0.913 SV% to go along with two shutouts on the season.
The Warriors and Vipers drop the puck at 7:00 PM tonight with tickets available online at wkw.goticketpro.com, at the Warriors office, by calling (250) 769-7051 as well as at the door ahead of the opening face-off. Half price draft beer and 25 cent chicken wings are available for tonight’s contest with the game being broadcasted on Shaw TV Okanagan on Channel #11.
