PHOTO: Garrett James/BCHL
The West Kelowna Warriors look for their first win in the midst of their five game home stand in the second rematch of the 2016 BCHL Final when they host the Chilliwack Chiefs.
Season Series:
Wednesday, September 21st @ Prospera Centre (5-2 Warriors)
Tuesday, October 4th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Sunday, January 29th @ Prospera Centre (5:00 PM)
West Kelowna and Chilliwack have battled it out once already this season, playing just 13 days ago at the Bauer BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack. The Warriors had a hat trick from Quin Foreman to go along with singles from Michael Ryan and Connor Sodergren to propel them to a 5-2 victory in the first rematch of the 2016 Fred Page Cup Final. Xavier Burghardt made his 2nd start as a member of the Warriors and stopped 31 of 33 shots for his second win with the club.
The Warriors will look to rebound after a pair of home ice losses last week with the most recent being a 3-1 defeat to the Penticton Vees. Penticton scored two goals in the first five minutes of the game and forced the Warriors to play catch up for the remainder of the game. An early third period goal by Reed Gunville looked like it could be the spark the Warriors needed to claw back in the game but the comeback was not to be had as the Vees skated away with the two-goal victory.
There will be a new face in the Warrior lineup tonight, as defensemen Tyler Jutting will make his BCHL debut, wearing number two. The 6’4, 204 pound rearguard hails from Mankato, Minnesota and comes to West Kelowna from the Lincoln Stars of the United States Hockey League (USHL). Jutting spent the previous two seasons at the prestigious Shattuck St. Mary’s program where he amassed five goals and 38 points in 93 career games with the midget prep team.
The Warriors will look to get their offence going as it has hit a bit of a stalemate in the home stand. West-K has potted just a goal in each of the first two games in the five game stretch and sits 15th in the league in goals scored with 23 through 7 games thus far in the 2016/17 season. The only teams to score less than the Warriors are the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (22) and the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (19).
The flip side for the Warriors is that they have been stingy defensively, allowing just 23 goals against in those 7 games this season, good enough for 3rd in the BCHL. Only two teams have a better goals against than the Warriors, those being the Vees (15) and the Wenatchee Wild (19).
As for the Chiefs, they come into tonight with a 5-3-0-0 record and are coming off of a split between two games against the Surrey Eagles. The Eagles, winless at the time, found their offence and potted eight goals on the Chiefs on Thursday night before Chilliwack came back and won in double overtime with just 0.8 seconds left on the clock. The winner coming courtesy of captain Jordan Kawaguchi.
The aforementioned Kawaguchi leads the Chiefs in scoring with six goals and 12 points in the team’s first 8 games. The veteran-led Chiefs have six of their top seven scorers being 19 or 20 years old with the top five of their leading scorers being returnees from last season.
This is the 2nd of three meetings between the two clubs with the regular season finale coming in the New Year on January 29th in Chilliwack. Puck drop for tonight’s contest is 7:00 pm with tickets for tonight’s $5 Tuesday available at the Warriors office or by calling Kim at (250) 769-7051.
