PHOTO: Trevor Crawley
CRANBROOK, B.C. – The series has been pushed to 7 games as the West Kelowna Warriors dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Cranbrook Bucks on Sunday night at Western Financial Place.
After a strong start to the game with an abundance of time inside of the offensive zone for West Kelowna, it was Cranbrook that broke the ice in Game 6 with Noah Urness give the Bucks a 1-0 lead. Urness took a shot off the right pad of Matthew DellaRusso in the Warriors net before the Bucks forward sent the puck past the blocker side to give Cranbrook a 1-0 lead.
A disallowed goal against the Bucks on the man advantage turned the period as just five seconds after that goaltender interference call to negate the goal, Sean Keohane got a bit of help off the penalty box stanchion to tie the game exactly halfway through the opening period.
Keohane got the puck just inside of his own blue line and snapped a shot off the stanchion at the visiting penalty box that went to the middle of the ice and slid into the empty goal as Carter Capton had exited his net to play the puck as Keohane collected his 2nd goal of the series and levelled the game at 1-1.
The Warriors took their first lead of the game early into the 2nd period with Trent Wilson notching a goal in his second consecutive game to give the visitors a 2-1 lead. Wilson took a pass right in front of the blueline for a breakaway from Dylan Krayer and worked into the offensive end before snapping a shot past the blocker side of Capton for his 4th goal of the playoffs just under two minutes into the 2nd frame for a 2-1 advantage.
After a good shift inside of the offensive zone by the Warriors, the Bucks came the other way and tied the game at the 12:56 mark of the middle period with Samuel Lyne batting a puck out of mid air in the right face-off circle off a rebound at the net for his first BCHL goal that evened the score at 2-2.
Cranbrook took their second lead of the game early in the 3rd period at 1:47 with Julian Frias finding the back of the net on a shot by Lyne that bounced off the glove of DellaRusso as Frias buried from the right face-off circle to make the score 3-2 in favour of the Bucks.
The first power play of Game 6 for the Warriors helped them to a tie game and their 9th power play goal of the series forced the game to 3-3 with Felix Caron evening the score. Caron got the puck in the left face-off circle on a terrific passing play where Jackson Kyrkostas quickly pushed the puck from the slot to his left as Caron buried his 4th goal of the series and got the game levelled at 3-3.
The Warriors had thought they had taken the lead in the final regulation period as Carter Oakenfold drove the net from the right wing and flipped the puck to the goal, into the legs of Capton while the puck tickled over the goal line but was ruled to pushed in ny Oakenfold making contact with the goaltender, after review, and was overturned to keep the game at 3-3 and force overtime.
West Kelowna earned a power play early in the overtime period but were unable to generate anything offensively before Jaden Fodchuk, who took the penalty in OT, concluded Game 6 with a partial breakaway goal.
Fodchuk got underneath a Warriors defender and raced down the left wing side and cut to the net before flipping the puck over the blocker side of DellaRusso at the 3:13 mark of overtime as the Bucks forced a seventh and decisive game in the series.
FINAL SCORE: 4-3 Bucks (OT)
SHOTS ON GOAL: 39-38 Bucks
WARRIORS PP: 1/2
WARRIORS PK: 1/1
3 STARS:
1) Jaden Fodchuk (1-0-1)
2) Noah Urness (1-0-1)
3) Trent Wilson (1-2-3)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Nic Leggett (0-0-0)
ATTENDANCE: 1,514
The seventh and final game of the best-of-seven set will take place on Tuesday night at Royal LePage Place with a 7:00 PM puck drop. Tickets are available for purchase on the Warriors website as well as at the Warriors Office and Box Office, which opens one hour before puck drop on game day.
