The West Kelowna Warriors (22-14-4-0) wrap up their weekend of games with a trip to the North Okanagan to face-off against the Vernon Vipers (18-18-0-4) for the final time in the regular season on Saturday night at Kal Tire Place.
REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE VS. VERNON
Friday, November 4th @ Royal LePage Place (4-3 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Tuesday, November 8th @ Royal LePage Place (4-3 Warriors/SO) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, December 2nd @ Royal LePage Place (4-3 Warriors/SO) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, December 16th @ Kal Tire Place (5-1 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, February 11th @ Kal Tire Place (6:00 PM)
The Warriors come into Saturday night’s contest following a 7-1 loss to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Friday night at the Shaw Centre. For the second straight game, Jake Bernadet scored the lone goal while Cayden Hamming started the game, making 12 saves on 16 shots in his 2nd loss of the season while Angelo Zol came on in relief and made 21 saves on 24 attempts.
West Kelowna will look to sweep the season series against Vernon on Saturday and played a strong game in their last meeting, just before the Holiday break in mid-December, with a 5-1 triumph at Kal Tire Place. Felix Caron, Matt Fusco, Ben MacDonald, Jake Bernadet and Michael Salandra each found the back of the net in the winning effort for the Warriors while Justin Katz earned the win in goal, making 23 saves on 24 shots.
Warriors Leading Scorers:
Jaiden Moriello (19-15-34)
Ben MacDonald (17-15-32)
Rylee Hlusiak (11-20-31)
Isaiah Norlin (3-26-29)
Michael Salandra (11-15-26)
The Warriors will have a pair of players who will hit the century mark in tonight’s game with 100 career regular season BC Hockey League games under their belt. The first is Brennan Nelson, who has played parts of the last three seasons in West Kelowna while the Penticton, BC native has amassed 17 goals and 43 assists for 60 points over his 99 career games up to this point as he has registered 8 goals and 15 assists for 23 points in 39 games played this season.
Another Warriors who will see triple digits in regular season games played tonight is Riley Sharun. The hometown West Kelowna, BC product has also played parts of the last three seasons with the club, boasting 14 goals and 12 assists for 26 points over his tenure with the Warriors. Sharun has suited up in 34 games this season while earning 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points.
For the second consecutive game, Warriors forward Jake Bernadet tallied the lone goal as the Warriors couldn’t strike enough offence against Salmon Arm to come away with a win. Bernadet has three goals in his last eight games while scoring back-to-back for the first time this season and the rookie forward has registered 8 tallies on the campaign.
The Vernon Vipers come into Saturday night’s game following a weekend away from home which concluded in a 4-2 loss to the Cranbrook Bucks a week ago at Western Financial Place. Lee Parks and Isaac Tremblay had the Viper goals in the game while Roan Clarke turned aside 30 of the 33 shots thrown his way in his 10th defeat of the season.
Vipers Leading Scorers:
Lee Parks (15-15-30)
Reagan Millburn (12-18-30)
Luke Pakulak (10-17-27)
Walker Erickson (12-13-25)
Seiya Tanaka-Campbell (10-12-22)
The Vipers added veteran BCHL forward at the Trade Deadline this season and has injected a spark into their offensive game, providing 2 goals and 5 points in his 7 games with the club. The 20-year-old out of Surrey, BC marks Vernon as the fourth different BCHL team he has suited up for over his career, spanning 129 regular season games and has added 27 goals and 28 assists for 55 points during his time.
Stittsville, Ontario native Lee Parks has vaulted himself into the Vipers scoring lead with 15 goals and 30 points in 36 games this season. The University of Massachusetts-Lowell commit has earned points in three of his last four contests, registering goals in back-to-back games while adding two assists as well for four points over that stretch. Parks has had success against the Warriors this season, amassing goals and points in three of the four head-to-head meetings with 3 goals and 2 assists for 5 points in the season set.
Few teams have had the daunting travel schedule the Vipers have faced over the past couple of weeks and will continue to face following this game against West Kelowna. Saturday marks Vernon’s only home game in just under a month with a trip to Wenatchee for two games, two trips to Trail & Cranbrook, an Island road trip and two games in Prince George sandwiched in. The record speaks for itself that the Vipers enjoy playing on home ice, owning a 13-6-0-2 record at Kal Tire Place and rank in a tied for 4th in the BCHL with those 13 home ice wins.
The Warriors and Vipers play the fifth of their five-game season series on Saturday night at Kal Tire Place. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM with the game being broadcasted live on AM 1150 as well as streamed online at BCHLTV.ca.
