The West Kelowna Warriors (1-0-0-0) hit the road for the first time this season as they get set to take on the Trail Smoke Eaters (0-0-1-0) at Cominco Arena on Saturday night.
REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE VS. TRAIL
Saturday, September 23rd @ Cominco Arena (7:00 PM)
Saturday, September 30th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Friday, December 9th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Saturday, February 10th @ Cominco Arena (7:00 PM)
Friday, March 1st @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Friday, March 22nd @ Cominco Arena (7:00 PM)
The Warriors enter play on Saturday following an exciting season-opening victory over the Penticton Vees in front of 1,268 fans at Royal LePage Place on Friday night. Johannes Løkkeberg scored twice in his BC Hockey League debut while Michael Salandra, Trent Wilson and Cal Hughes each found the back of the net as well in the win. Rorke Applebee turned aside 32 of the 35 shots thrown his way in his 1st career win in West Kelowna.
Warriors Leading Scorers:
Johannes Løkkeberg (2-1-3)
Cal Hughes (1-1-2)
Viggo Nordström (0-2-2)
Michael Salandra (1-0-1)
Trent Wilson (1-0-1)
It was quite the debut and inauguration into the BCHL for Norwegian forward Johannes Løkkeberg, who tallied twice and collected three points in the Warriors season opening triumph over Penticton. The Fredrikstad, Norway native spent time with Team Norway at the Under-20 World Junior Hockey Championship as an assistant captain on the team while also playing his junior hockey with Mora IK in Sweden, posting 36 points in 45 games a season ago.
Following a first season in West Kelowna with 17 goals and 38 points, forward Michael Salandra continued that success into the first game of this campaign with the season’s opening goal in the 1st period on Friday night. The Pleasantville, New York product added three points in postseason play last season and will factor into the Warriors lineup in a big way this season while also being named to the leadership group as an assistant captain.
For the third consecutive season, the Warriors found their way to a season-opening win, having not lost the opening game of a campaign since the 2019/20 season. The 5 goals that West Kelowna produced in their season opener was tied with their start to the 2021/22 season, where they had a similar 5-3 win over the Prince George Spruce Kings and equals the highest goal total in a season opener since the 2015/16 season.
The Trail Smoke Eaters opened their regular season on home ice as well on Friday night as they dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to their Kootenay rival in the Cranbrook Bucks at Cominco Arena. Gryphon Bucci, Christian Kim, Chase Stefanek and Adam Barone each tallied in the Smoke Eaters loss while second-year netminder Teagan Kendrick turned aside 32 of the 37 shots he faced in the overtime defeat.
Smoke Eaters Leading Scorers:
Gryphon Bucci (1-1-2)
Adam Barone (1-0-1)
Christian Kim (1-0-1)
Chase Stefanek (1-0-1)
Ridge Dawson (0-1-1)
Beginning his BCHL career with a goal and an assist on Friday night, 17-year-old rookie forward Gryphon Bucci made quite the impression with his multi-point effort. The Sudbury, Ontario native scored the first goal of the season for Trail while adding an assist later in the contest to help his team force overtime before falling with 3 seconds remaining in the extra frame. A commit to Merrimack College, Bucci lit up the U16 AAA circuit in Massachusetts last year, scoring 35 goals and 105 points in just 60 games with the Boston Hockey Academy.
Chase Stefanek is another player who made his league debut for Trail last night and has a tie in with the Warriors, having been a teammate of Cal Hughes at Mount St. Charles high school and also playing together on Team USA at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Slovakia in August. Stefanek, a Yorba Linda, California native, posted 3 goals in 5 games with Team USA at the tournament while the Harvard University commit collected 28 goals and 70 points in 58 games last season with the U16 team at Mount St. Charles.
The Warriors and Smoke Eaters will kick-off the first of their six-game season series on Friday night in the West Kootenays. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM from Cominco Arena and fans can tune into the game on AM1150 as well as stream the game live on FloHockey.
West Kelowna returns home for a pair of games at Royal LePage Place next weekend as they host the Cranbrook Bucks on Friday, September 29th before welcoming the Smoke Eaters to town on Saturday, September 30th. Both games are 7:00 PM start times and tickets are available for each on the Warriors website as well as at the Warriors Office.
