PHOTO: Wayne Moore/Castanet
The West Kelowna Warriors couldn’t overcome two goals in the games opening five minutes and fell to Highway 97 rivals in the Penticton Vees by a 3-1 score on Friday night at Royal LePage Place.
The Warriors found themselves behind early, just 2:53 into the game to be exact, on a nice wrist shot from Grant Cruikshank on the power play to put the Vees ahead by a 1-0 score.
Penticton added to their lead just over two minutes later as Nic Jones found some space and placed a similar wrist shot over the glove hand of the Warrior netminder Xavier Burghardt, who was replaced by Shane Farkas after yielding two goals and the Vees first five shots.
The Vees added another early period goal as the 2nd frame began with a marker coming again courtesy of Cruikshank. The Vees forward took an indirect pass and beat Farkas through the legs on a partial break for the 3-0 lead just 2:26 into the frame.
The Warriors finally broke through on the score sheet just 56 seconds into the 3rd period thanks to a goal mouth scramble that was whacked in by Reed Gunville for his 3rd goal of the season and cut the deficit to two at 3-1.
West Kelowna looked to have the game cut down to one on a Stephen Kleysen shot getting through traffic on the power play but the goal was waved off due to contact with the Vees goaltender Mat Robson from Connor Sodergren to disallow the goal.
Farkas went on to have a very strong night in goal, stopping 29 of the thirty shots he faced while Vees goaltender Mat Robson stopped 24 of the 25 shots he saw for his BCHL-leading fifth win.
The Warriors will look to get back in the win column with a busy week at RLP next week, starting on Tuesday night when the Warriors host the Chilliwack Chiefs at 7:00 pm. Tickets can be purchased at the Warriors office or by calling Kim at (250) 769-7051.
