The West Kelowna Warriors continued their success against the Vernon Vipers with a 5-2 victory on Tuesday night in what was another excellent battle between the two Interior Division foes.
The Warriors opened up the scoring in the first minute of action, after some great work in their own zone from Rylan Yaremko. A great play in tight by Connor Sodergren ended up with Garrett Forster hammering home a loose puck past Brendan Barry.
A show-stopping save from Matthew Greenfield kept the game 1-0 halfway through the opening 20 minutes as an unreal pad save stopped a Vernon 2 on 0.
The Vipers would finally beat Greenfield as Odeen Tufto tucked one home by sending one on goal through a bit of a screen.
In the 2nd period, the Vipers Christian Cakebread drove wide and beat both Yaremko and Greenfield to give Vernon a 2-1 lead.
It was a record-tying 8 seconds for the Warriors at the mid-point of the period, as Liam Blackburn tied the game on a great shot in tight to get the pro-Warriors crowd of 751 on their feet.
After the ensuing face-off rolled onto Barry for another whistle, Jonathan Desbiens slapped home the biscuit off the draw to give the Warriors the lead they would not relinquish.
In the 3rd, Kylar Hope’s pass attempt from the corner eluded Barry and crossed the goal-line, before Tyler Anderson’s 1st BCHL goal into an empty-net sealed the deal.
The game wasn’t quite over as a scrum ensued in the corner, and with 1 second left Reed Gunville and Ben Butcher dropped the gloves in a feisty fight that ended with Gunville picking up an instigator penalty. The officials wisely ran the remaining second off the clock.
West Kelowna will host the Trail Smoke Eaters on Friday night at Royal LePage Place, before heading to Salmon Arm to take on the Silverbacks Saturday.
