PHOTO: Julie Pringle/Snap Photography
The West Kelowna Warriors open up a three-game Island road trip on Friday night as they travel to Duncan to face-off against the Cowichan Valley Capitals from the Island Savings Centre.
Warriors vs. Capitals 2017/18 Schedule:
Thursday, September 21st @ Prospera Centre (2-1 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, October 21st @ Royal LePage Place (3-2 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, February 9th @ Island Savings Centre (7:00 PM)
The Warriors and Capitals close out their season series on Friday night with West Kelowna’s lone visit to Duncan as they look for the season series sweep. The last meeting between the two teams was back in October with the Warriors coming away with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory with Bennett Norlin, Jake Harrison and Chase Dubois finding the back of the net. Cole Demers started in net for West Kelowna where he made 27 saves on 29 shots for the victory.
West Kelowna comes into Friday night with a 25-24-1-1 record with their largest offensive output of the season coming in their last contest on Tuesday night in an 8-2 victory over the Surrey Eagles at Royal LePage Place. Ryan Steele scored twice in the game for the Warriors while Parm Dhaliwal, Michael Lombardi, Chase Stevenson, Chase Dubois, Jordan Todd and Max Bulawka added singles in the victory. Nik Amundrud started between the pipes for West Kelowna, making 22 saves on 24 shots for his 14th win of the season.
Warriors Leading Scorers:
Jared Marino (19-31-50)
Chase Dubois (18-30-48)
Ryan Steele (15-28-43)
RJ Murphy (19-20-39)
Michael Ryan (5-34-39)
The scoring for West Kelowna kept up on Tuesday night with an eight-goal performance on Tuesday which boosted them to 55 goals for since the beginning of the new year. The Warriors are 2nd in the BCHL in goals for in 2018 and sit 8th in the league with 171 goals for this season and are just four goals behind their total from all of the 2016/17 season with seven games remaining.
Part of that large offensive success in 2018 was the acquisition of forward Ryan Steele and he has been as advertised, and then some, since arriving in West Kelowna. The Stratford, Prince Edward Island native has scored 8 goals and 15 points in just 11 games with the Warriors since the trade and is currently on a six-game point streak which has seen 7 goals and 13 points in those six contests.
West Kelowna heads to Vancouver Island looking for the same success that they had in early January when visiting Victoria, Nanaimo and Alberni Valley where they collected four of a possible six points. The Warriors are 8-1-1-0 against Island Division foes this season, including a pair of victories against the Caps with one more game against an Island Division team on Saturday in Powell River. West Kelowna will be looking for their 5th straight victory against the Capitals, dating back to October 25th, 2014.
The Cowichan Valley Capitals come into Friday night’s affair with a 9-34-2-5 record and sit 5th in the Island Division after a 6-3 loss to the Victoria Grizzlies on Wednesday night at the Island Savings Centre. Hugh Larkin, Troy MacTavish and Andrew McCann scored in the game for the Capitals while Michael Corson turned aside 37 of the 43 shots he faced on the night in his 4th loss of the season.
Capitals Leading Scorers:
Troy MacTavish (13-23-36)
Ty Pochipinski (18-16-34)
Tate Coughlin (10-18-28)
Andrew McCann (6-22-28)
Ethan Scardina (14-11-25)
It hasn’t been the kind of season that the Capitals had hoped as the club has struggled to find the win column and come into Friday night’s action having lost their last six games in a row. Cowichan Valley has been outscored by a 36-22 margin during the six-game slide and look to turn that around on home ice where 7 of the Caps 9 victories on the year have come from.
A pair of twenty-year-old forwards for the Capitals have been having strong seasons, and some impressive numbers over the last few games as captain Troy MacTavish leads the team in scoring with 13 goals and 36 points and currently has points in four straight games with 3 goals and 6 points while forward Tate Coughlin has been terrific since his arrival in Cowichan over a point per game 10 goals and 29 points in 25 games with the Caps. The Victoria, BC native is riding a three-game point streak which sees him with 6 points in that three-game span.
While the goals against category isn’t where the Capitals hoped it to be, goaltender Michael Corson is doing his part in between the pipes. Corson was acquired by Cowichan Valley from the Blind River Beavers of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL) and has compiled a 3-4 record to go along with a 3.33 GAA and a .914 SV% in 11 games with the Capitals since his arrival.
The Warriors and Capitals drop the puck at 7:00 PM from the Island Savings Centre in Duncan with the pre-game getting underway at 6:45 PM on the Warriors Internet Network and HockeyTV.com with the voice of the Warriors, Trevor Miller.
West Kelowna is back on home ice on Saturday, February 17th when the Warriors host the Victoria Grizzlies on Pastor Don Richmond’s 9th annual Faith Night. With plenty of local churches filling the seats and great raffle prizes to be won, it’s one of the most exciting nights of the season. The Warriors will also be hosting their annual team awards immediately after the final buzzer. Tickets are available online at wkw.goticketpro.com, at the Warriors office, by calling (250) 769-7051 or at the box office one hour prior to the opening face-off.
