The West Kelowna Warriors look to snap out of their five game funk when they host the Penticton Vees on Breast Cancer Awareness night at Royal LePage Place.
Season Series:
Friday, September 30th @ Royal LePage Place (3-1 Vees [BOXSCORE])
Saturday, October 22nd @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Tuesday, November 22nd @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Wednesday, January 11th @ South Okanagan Events Centre (7:00 PM)
Saturday, January 21st @ South Okanagan Events Centre (6:00 PM)
Friday, February 17th @ South Okanagan Events Centre (7:00 PM)
Tuesday, February 21st @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
The Warriors come into tonight’s game with a five-game winless stretch hanging over them after a tough 3-2 loss on Wednesday night against the Coquitlam Express at the Poirier Sports and Leisure Complex. West Kelowna got down by a 2-0 score early in the 2nd period but then clawed their way back thanks to the first career BCHL goal from Parm Dhaliwal and the fourth goal of the season from Braiden Epp and the game was tied at two. But with just 16 seconds to go in the game, Blake Hayward scored on a partial breakaway to give the Express a 3-2 victory and a deflating loss, to say the least, for the Warriors. Xavier Burghardt made 19 saves on 22 shots in a losing cause for the Warriors.
The Warriors and Vees have met once this season, back in late September at RLP in the first meeting (of meaning) between the two teams since their hard-fought six game playoff series of a season ago. The Vees tallied two early goals by Grant Cruikshank and Nicholas Jones before the five-minute mark in the 1st period to take a 2-0 lead before Cruikshank added another early in the 2nd to take a 3-0 lead. Reed Gunville would get the Warriors on the board early in the 3rd period but it was too little, too late as the Vees skated away with a 3-1 win.
West Kelowna is up against a stiff test tonight in the Interior Division leading and BCHL leading Vees and will need to score some goals, which will be tough against this Penticton squad. The Warriors 2nd least in goal scoring in the league with only the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (32) scoring less goals than the defending national champions (39) have so far this season. The Vees, on the other hand, have given up the least amount of goals in the league with a miniscule 31 goals against in 14 games thus far in the year.
The Warriors are hosting their Breast Cancer Awareness night at RLP tonight and will be wearing special commemorative pink jerseys for the occasion. The jerseys, which will be worn for just this game tonight, will be available for auction through the Warriors website with the bidding starting on Monday morning.
The Vees come into tonight after a victory against the Merritt Centennials last night at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena by a 4-2 score. Taylor Ward, Chris Klack, Ben Brar and Kenny Johnson all tallied in the victory while Nolan Hildebrand made 26 saves on 28 shots in the victory. The Vees are recently coming off of a 10-game win streak in which they lost last Saturday when being shutout by a 3-0 score on home ice.
The Vees are again atop the BCHL standings and this season has been helped in large part to their ability to keeping the puck out of the goal. The Western Canada Cup hosts lead the league in goals against with only 29 given up so far and goaltender Mathew Robson, the likely starter for tonight’s game, is having a season to remember in his first season in the Vees crease. The 20-year old is leading the BCHL in wins (9) and goals against average (1.74) while being tied for the lead in save percentage (.931).
Puck drop is slated for 7:00 pm at Royal LePage Place while tickets can be purchased through the Warriors office or by phoning Kim at (250) 769-7051. If you can’t make it down to RLP, catch all the action with free live audio on the Warriors Internet Network or pay-per-view video on hockeytv,com (links above) with pre game starting at 6:50 pm.
