PHOTO: Wayne Moore/Castanet
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 21st, 2018
WEST KELOWNA, B.C. – The West Kelowna Warriors surrendered a third period lead but worked their way back from being behind by a pair before falling in overtime in a frantic game to the Wenatchee Wild on Wednesday night.
The game opened with plenty of jump from both sides but it was the Warriors who scored the first goal of the game and opened the scoring in the game for the first time in the last three contests to give the home crowd something to cheer about in the early going.
Parm Dhaliwal made a chip pass on the left wing from his own zone that was greeted by an speeding Chase Dubois inside the Wenatchee end of the ice. Dubois stopped in the right-wing face-off circle and centered a pass for Ryan Steele as he teed up a shot from the slot on the glove side of Wild goaltender Seth Eisele for a 1-0 lead at the 2:01 mark of the period on Steele’s 18th goal of the season.
That would be all the scoring in the opening period with the early goal by Steele, who extended his point streak to 11 games with the early tally. Nik Amundrud turned aside 9 of the shots he faced in the 1st period while Seth Eisele stopped 5 of the 6 shots thrown his way in the 1st period to see the Warriors ahead by a goal.
The scoring picked up from then on with the Wild tying the game at the 3:45 mark of the 2nd period courtesy of a Sam Morton power play goal. Morton was set up in the right-wing face-off circle off a feed from Cooper Zech to tie the game on the Wild’s first power play goal of the game.
The Warriors took the lead back at the 7:11 mark of the 2nd period with Parm Dhaliwal finding the back of the net on a power play of their own. After some crisp passing, Dubois spotted an open Dhaliwal at the front of the net for a redirection on the blocker side for his 15th goal of the season and put the Warriors back ahead by a 2-1 score.
Wenatchee got the game back to level again at the 15:02 mark of the middle stanza as Lucas Sowder capped off a gorgeous tic-tac-toe passing play. Slava Demin slid a pass to the top of the right circle for Zech who then tossed the puck to Sowder and he beat a diving Amundrud to the blocker side for a 2-2 tie.
Ryan Steele got the Warriors lead back at the 16:56 mark of the period on a strong rush down the right wing to find the puck and beat Eisele on the blocker side. Steele raced down the wing and beat a tired Wild defender before finding some daylight on the blocker side and sneaking the puck through for his second goal of the game and a 3-2 Warriors lead on his 19th marker of the season.
The Warriors lead was extended to two goals late in the period at the 18:03 mark off of a Jared Marino power play as he shot from the slot that beat the glove side of Eisele for his 21st goal of the season and gave the Warriors a 4-2 lead heading into the 3rd period of play.
The Wild started their comeback with a goal 2:37 into the 3rd period as Chad Sasaki had a seeing eye shot get through traffic on the power play off the right pad of Amundrud to make it a 4-3 Warriors lead in the opening moments of the frame.
Wenatchee used special teams, again, to tie the game as Lucas Sowder got his second goal of the game with a rush down the right side and a shot from the face-off dot that found its way past Amundrud on the blocker side for the shorthanded tally and a tie game at the 4:44 mark of the period.
Another power play goal for the Wild gave them their first lead of the game at the 7:58 mark of the 3rd frame as Morton found the back of the net for the second time. Being set up by Zech from the middle, Morton blasted a shot from the right circle past Amundrud for the 5-4 Wild lead.
The Wild captain AJ Vanderbeck gave Wenatchee a two-goal advantage with a shot from the slot as a puck bounced in between the circles before he let go of a wrister past Amundrud at the 12:21 mark and push the Wild advantage to 6-4.
The comebacks weren’t over there as the Warriors tallied twice in 35 seconds to tie the game beginning with Dhaliwal’s second goal of the game at the 18:15 mark of the 3rd period as he whacked in a loose rebound in front off a Garrett Ewert shot from the right circle for his 16th goal of the season and a 6-5 Wenatchee lead.
Michael Ryan capped off the 3rd period scoring frenzy with the Warriors net being empty as Ryan picked off a pass from the Wild defense and moved to the right circle before letting a shot go between the legs of Eisele for his 7th of the season and a tie game destined for overtime.
The Wild survived a too many men penalty in the extra frame before Matt Dorsey found himself behind the Warriors defense and went to his forehand from his backhand to tuck the puck by Amundrud on the glove side and give Wenatchee the 7-6 overtime victory.
Nik Amundrud turned aside 30 of the 37 shots he faced in the game for the overtime defeat while Seth Eisele stopped 22 of the 28 shots thrown his way for his 20th victory of the season.
FINAL SCORE: 7-6 Wild (OT)
FINAL SHOTS ON GOAL: 37-28 Wild
Warriors PP: 2/5
Warriors PK: 0/3
3 Stars:
1) Ryan Steele (2-3-5)
2) Slava Demin (0-2-2)
3) Chase Dubois (0-4-4)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Parm Dhaliwal (2-0-2)
ATTENDANCE: 1,104
The Warriors (27-26-1-2) head out on the road for their final two games of the regular season as they begin their final weekend with a trip to the Nicola Valley to face-off against the Merritt Centennials (23-26-2-4) for a 7:00 PM puck drop. The game can be heard on the Warriors Internet Network and also streamed live on HockeyTV.com beginning at 6:45 PM with the pre-game show with the Voice of the Warriors, Trevor Miller.
