The West Kelowna Warriors took home four of a possible six points on their Island trip with a 2-1-overtime victory in Port Alberni against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs were first to strike and it came courtesy of a power play at the tail end of the 1st period. Jake Witkowski found daylight on the glove side of Warriors netminder Shane Farkas and gave Alberni Valley a 1-0 lead with just 35 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
It took until the 2nd period but the Warriors found their way on the score sheet as Reed Gunville took advantage of a miscue behind the Alberni net and beat Bulldog netminder Brody Claeys for his 9th goal of the season and a 1-1 tie at the 13:21 mark of the 2nd period.
A scoreless third period saw the Warriors apply pressure but just couldn’t crack Claeys despite firing 14 shots toward the Alberni goal. Shane Farkas stood tall as well, making 12 saves in the period to get the game into overtime.
After a penalty kill in the early stages of overtime, the Warriors went to the power play and made no mistake. Matthew Campese fired a shot through traffic from the slot and beat Claeys through his legs for his 1st goal as a Warrior at 3:43 of the first overtime to give the Warriors a 2-1 victory in extra time and four of a possible six points on the Island road trip.
Shane Farkas was excellent in the Warrior net, stopping 35 of the 36 shots thrown his way while Brody Claeys stood tall in the Alberni goal, making 36 saves on 38 shots.
The Warriors (7-9-0-1) will complete a four-game road trip with a visit to the Shaw Centre to face-off against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (8-11-0-0). Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM with the pre-game show starting at 6:50 PM on the Warriors Internet Network and hockeytv.com.
