PHOTO: Julie Pringle/Snap Photography
The West Kelowna Warriors make their first trip south of the border this season as they take on the Wenatchee Wild at the Town Toyota Center
Warriors vs. Wild 2017/18 Schedule:
Friday, October 13th @ Royal LePage Place (4-2 Wild) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, November 10th @ Town Toyota Center (7:05 PM)
Saturday, December 2nd @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Friday, January 12th @ Town Toyota Center (7:05 PM)
Saturday, January 13th @ Town Toyota Center (7:05 PM)
Tuesday, February 21st @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
The Warriors and Wild have met once this season and played to a very good, back and forth hockey game that saw Wenatchee come away with a 4-2 victory at Royal LePage Place. A pair of American forwards in Willie Reim and RJ Murphy scored for the Warriors but a late shorthanded goal by August Von Ungern and an empty netter gave Wenatchee to two-goal win. Nik Amundrud turned aside 37 of the 40 shots he faced in the losing effort.
West Kelowna enters Friday night’s contest in Washington State with a 13-8-0-0 record after a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks at Royal LePage Place as the Warriors honoured the men and women of the armed forces. Chase Dubois tallied a pair of goals in the game while Chase Stevenson, Jake Harrison and Michael Lombardi added singles in the Warriors 13th victory of the season. Cole Demers stood tall in the Warriors crease as he made 35 saves on 37 shots for his 7th win of the season.
Warriors Leading Scorers:
Jared Marino (6-11-17)
Michael Ryan (1-14-15)
Chase Dubois (8-6-14)
Parm Dhaliwal (5-9-14)
Stephen Kleysen (4-9-13)
Chase Dubois had his 2nd two-goal game of the season and has been a nice little stretch offensively over his six games. The Williams Lake, BC native has points in five of his last six games with four goals and six points over that span. Dubois overtook the Warriors lead in goal scoring with his pair of markers on Wednesday night and is 3rd on the team in scoring overall with 14 points in 19 games played this season.
Speaking of Dubois’ two goals on Wednesday, multi-goal games have been a usual occurrence over the past few weeks. The Warriors have had players in four of the last five games to have multi-goal outings as Willie Reim, Lucas Cullen, Parm Dhaliwal and Dubois are the culprits over West Kelowna’s recent stretch of games.
Royal LePage Place has been a strong place for the Warriors to play so far this season as they hold a BCHL-best 9-2-0-0 record in their home rink and will look to share some of that success as they head on the road to Wenatchee. West Kelowna holds a 4-6-0-0 record on the road this season while scoring 29 times and giving up 36 goals against for a -7-goal differential, which ranks 13th in the league for road goal differential.
The Wenatchee Wild come into Friday night’s game with an 11-7-1-0 record with their most recent game coming last Wednesday night, on November 1st, as the Wild dropped a 7-5 decision to the Trail Smoke Eaters at Cominco Arena in Trail. August Von Ungern, AJ Vanderbeck, Jasper Weatherby, Brady Bjork and Slava Demin all scored in the Wild defeat while Austin Park stopped 17 of the 24 shots he faced in the game for his 3rd loss of the season.
Wild Leading Scorers:
Jasper Weatherby (15-9-24)
Cooper Zech (5-17-22)
Lucas Sowder (7-11-18)
Sam Morton (8-9-17)
Chad Sasaki (4-13-17)
The long lay-off in between games was not originally on the schedule for the Wild but a postponed game has forced Wenatchee to going 9 days between games. The Wild were slated to take on the Powell River Kings on Friday night at Town Toyota Center but the Kings bus broke down en route to the game and postponed the matchup, leaving the Wild with nearly a week and a half of downtime between games.
Wenatchee sits 3rd in the BCHL in goals for with 77 on the year in their 19 games played and have been helped, in large part, by returning forward Jasper Weatherby, who leads the team with 15 goals and 24 points in 19 games. The Lummi Island, Washington native sits 2nd in the BCHL in goals with his 15, two behind Surrey Eagles forward John Wesley for top spot, and 10th overall in the league with 24 points.
Two Wild forwards, who missed the action on October 13th in West Kelowna, have returned with a vengeance in the Wenatchee lineup. Captain AJ Vanderbeck has points in 5 of the 6 games he has played since returning from injury and is riding a three-game point streak (3-2-5) while returning forward Lucas Sowder has points in four of the five games in his return from an injury with two goals and eight points during that span.
The Warriors and Wild are slated to drop the puck at 7:05 PM from the Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee with the pre-game show starting at 6:50 PM on the Warriors Internet Network and HockeyTV.com with the voice of the Warriors, Trevor Miller. West Kelowna returns home on Sunday where they host the Prince George Spruce Kings for a 2:30 PM face-off.
The Warriors are holding a live auction for their Remembrance Day jerseys that were wore in honour of the veterans on Wednesday, November 8th against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. Visit www.westkelownawarriors.ca/auction for more information and to learn how to bid on your favourite Warriors players jersey! The bidding comes to a close on Tuesday, November 14th at 3:00 PM.
