PHOTO: Ross Alman/Digital Media Northwest
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 13th, 2018
WENATCHEE, WA. – The West Kelowna Warriors had their three-game winning streak halted with a 6-0 defeat to the Wenatchee Wild on Saturday night at the Town Toyota Center.
The Wild opened the game with three consecutive power plays and, on their third attempt, struck first blood in the contest for a 1-0 lead. Sam Morton sniped a shot from the right-wing face-off circle over the glove side shoulder of Warriors netminder Cole Demers and the power play marker put the home team ahead by a 1-0 score.
Wenatchee continued to apply pressure in the opening frame and extended their lead to a pair of goals late in the 1st period thanks to the leading scorer amongst defensemen in the BCHL. Cooper Zech banged home a rebound of a Morton shot from the right face-off circle and doubled the lead for Wenatchee to a 2-0 score heading into the 2nd period.
A low scoring 2nd frame saw the Warriors play with some urgency and had some of the better zone time between the two teams in the period which had some rough stuff and a fight as Cody Paivarinta and Nathan Iannone dropped the glove deep inside the West Kelowna zone with just over 4 minutes remaining in the period. Both landed some shots but was a relatively even scrap between the two big men.
Wenatchee cashed in on the lone goal in the 2nd period with another marker late in the frame as at the 18:21 mark, Sam Hesler was the beneficiary of a blocked shot that came right to his stick in right face-off circle and beat a down and out Demers for a 3-0 Wild lead after 40 minutes.
Demers turned aside 19 of the 22 shots he had faced through two periods of play while Seth Eisele stopped all 9 of the shots he faced in the game in the opening 40 minutes of play.
The 3rd period saw the Wild hit the scoresheet three times starting with a power play goal coming from Zak Galambos as he slapped the puck from slot past the glove side of Demers to extend the Wild lead to 4-0 at the 9:23 mark of the final period.
Jasper Weatherby scored the first of his two 3rd period goals just over a minute after the Galambos marker at the 10:26 mark as he raced down the left-wing and snapped a shot past Demers on the glove side and increased the Wenatchee lead to 5-0.
Weatherby added his second of the game at the 14:37 mark of the 3rd period with a redirection of a Slava Demin point shot and by the glove side to close out the scoring on the night in a 6-0 Wenatchee victory.
Cole Demers stopped 26 of the 32 shots he faced in the game for his 5th loss of the season while Seth Eisele turned aside all 15 shots he faced in the game for his 11th win of the season and his first shutout of the year.
FINAL SCORE: 6-0 Wild
FINAL SHOTS ON GOAL: 32-15 Wild
Warriors PP: 0/4
Warriors PK: 2/4
3 Stars:
1) Jasper Weatherby (2-1-3)
2) Sam Morton (1-1-2)
3) Cooper Zech (1-1-2)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Zak Galambos (1-1-2)
ATTENDANCE: 3,868
The Warriors (22-19-1-1) return home on Tuesday, January 16th to face-off against the Vernon Vipers (28-10-4-1) in the 5th meeting of their 6-game season series and will be broadcasted live on Shaw TV Okanagan and will also be featuring half price draft beer as well as 25 cent chicken wings. Tickets are available online at wkw.goticketpro.com, at the Warriors office, by calling (250) 769-7051 or at the box office one hour ahead of the opening puck drop.
