The West Kelowna Warriors make their way to the Shuswap for a big divisional matchup against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Friday night at the Shaw Centre.
Warriors vs. Silverbacks 2017/18 Schedule:
Saturday, October 7th @ Royal LePage Place (4-1 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Sunday, October 22nd @ Shaw Centre (3-1 Silverbacks) (BOXSCORE)
Wednesday, November 8th @ Royal LePage Place (5-2 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, January 20th @ Royal LePage Place (3-2 Silverbacks) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, February 2nd @ Shaw Centre (7:00 PM)
Saturday, February 24th @ Shaw Centre (7:00 PM)
The Warriors and Silverbacks meet for the fifth of six times in the regular season tonight as West Kelowna sits just four points ahead of Salmon Arm in the Interior Division standings. The last meeting between the two teams saw the ‘Backs come away with a 3-2 victory as Salmon Arm scored three times in the first two periods before Parm Dhaliwal and Jared Marino scoring 1:03 apart in the 3rd period but could not complete the comeback. Cole Demers turned aside 35 of the 38 shots he faced in the crease for the defeat.
West Kelowna comes into Friday night’s affair with a 24-22-1-1 record and sit 5th in the Interior Division after wins in two of their last three games with the latest being a 6-2 victory over the Alberni Valley Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon. Michael Lombardi and Parm Dhaliwal each scored twice while Willie Reim and Wyatt Head added singles in the Warriors win. Nik Amundrud stopped 33 of the 35 shots he faced in his 13th win of the season.
Warriors Leading Scorers:
Jared Marino (19-30-49)
Chase Dubois (16-26-42)
Ryan Steele (12-25-37)
Michael Ryan (5-30-35)
Michael Lombardi (15-19-34)
It was a big week offensively for the Warriors in their last three games and four of their players were given honourable mentions for the BC Hockey League’s Player of the Week award. Ryan Steele (4-3-7), Chase Dubois (1-6-7) and Michael Lombardi (3-3-6) all had big weeks of offense for the Warriors, who outscored their opposition by a 15-9 during their three-game week. Goaltender Nik Amundrud also received an honourable mention with a 2-0 record along with a 2.35 GAA and a .925 SV% in all three games of the week.
Parm Dhaliwal had a strong week with a pair of goals and four points in the Warriors three games and has not taken long to get back into form offensively after returning from an injury. The Surrey, BC native has registered five goals and seven points since his return to the lineup on January 16th against the Vernon Vipers. Dhaliwal’s goal scoring pace has been impressive as he had 6 goals in his first 28 games this season before this strong stretch of finding the back of the net.
In lineup news, the Warriors get some good news with the return of forward Chase Stevenson after missing the last 17 games with an injury and one because of the World Junior ‘A’ Challenge tryouts where the injury took place. The West Kelowna, BC native has collected 7 goals and 18 points in 30 games played this season. There’s also some bad news as defenseman Stephen Kleysen will be out for the weekend with an injury as the Warriors will bring in d-man Kiernan Bailey from the Valley West Hawks of the BC Major Midget League for the weekend of games.
The Salmon Arm Silverbacks come into Friday night with a 21-23-1-3 record and are one of the hottest teams in the BCHL with six wins in a row. The latest for the ‘Backs came on Saturday night with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Surrey Eagles. Brandon Whistle compiled a hat trick on the night, including the overtime winner, while Tanner Campbell added a single in the win. Reid Cooper made 25 saves on 28 shots in between the pipes for his 7th win of the season and 6th with the Silverbacks.
Silverbacks Leading Scorers:
Rhett Kingston (21-20-41)
Tanner Campbell (12-19-31)
Akito Hirose (4-22-26)
Nick Unruh (10-15-25)
Grayson Constable (7-17-24)
The Silverbacks have been on a roll as of late with wins in their last six games including back-to-back overtime victories against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs and Surrey Eagles. Salmon Arm has outscored their opponents by a 29-20 margin in that span along with four of the six games on the win streak coming by just one goal. Salmon Arm’s power play has also struck, scoring in each of their last three games.
While the Warriors picked four honourable mentions for the week, Silverbacks forward Tanner Campbell took home the weekly award after a very strong three-game week. The Kelowna, BC native collected 4 goals and 8 points over the three games including having scored in each of the three contests against Langley, Alberni Valley and Surrey. Campbell has been dangerous offensively over course of the Silverbacks winning stretch with points in 7 of his last 8 games.
Along with Campbell’s strong stretch offensively, a pair of Silverbacks have also found some strong numbers over the last few games. Forward Nick Unruh has points in each of his last four games, scoring two times and collecting six points in that span and has vaulted up to 4th on the team in scoring. Forward Brandon Whistle comes into this game with four points in his last two games including a hat-trick on Saturday night against Surrey with all three goals coming on the power play.
The Warriors and Silverbacks drop the puck at 7:00 PM for their big divisional matchup with the pre-game show 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 night for another big divisional game against the Merritt Centennials for a 7:00 PM face-off. 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.
