PHOTO: Chris Fowler
SALMON ARM, BC. – The West Kelowna Warriors clinched home ice advantage in the opening round of the BCHL Playoffs, presented by Shaw, as they knocked off the Salmon Arm Silverbacks by a 4-3 score in a shootout on Saturday night at the Shaw Centre.
Starting on the road can be tough but the Warriors opened the game with plenty of jump and quickly broke the ice with the first goal of the game coming just 31 seconds into the contest with Rylee Hlusiak notching his 22nd goal of the season to give West Kelowna an early 1-0 advantage.
After a five-point night against the Centennials on Friday, Hlusiak took a Chris Duclair cross-ice feed from the left face-off circle in the right dot and walked into a snap shot past the glove side of Silverbacks goaltender Matthew Tovell as he pushed the visitors to an early edge.
The Silverbacks had a response in the opening five minutes as Reid Varkonyi evened the score at the 4:25 mark of the opening period. A point shot from Will Lavigne was stopped by Warriors goaltender Cayden Hamming before Varkonyi collected the rebound and lifted a backhand shot over the glove side of the Warriors goaltender to make it a 1-1 hockey game in the opening five minutes of the contest.
For the second straight period, the Warriors scored in the opening minute of the period as Michael Salandra gave the visitors their second lead of the game just 23 seconds into the middle frame. Isaiah Norlin had his point shot redirected from the blue line as Salandra deflected the puck over the glove side of Tovell for his 17th goal of the season to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead to open the second period.
West Kelowna continued to apply that pressure and added to their lead at the 5:30 mark of the middle frame as Jaiden Moriello notched his team-leading 25th goal of the season to give the Warriors a two-goal edge. Moriello collected the puck in the slot from a Dylan Brooks play and walked to the middle before ripping a shot past the blocker side of Tovell and gave the Warriors their first two-goal lead of the game.
Salmon Arm would string together consecutive shifts inside of the offensive zone, including a stretch of two minutes where they had the Warriors hemmed inside of the defensive zone but Hamming stood tall, turning aside each of the 12 shots thrown his way in the middle frame and helped the Warriors to a two-goal lead into the 3rd period of play.
The Silverbacks put a press on in the 3rd period to get back into the game and cut the deficit to a goal with a power play marker at the 5:14 mark of the final regulation period. Isaac Lambert got the puck in the left face-off circle and cut to the net, finishing on his back hand for the power play goal to diminish the Warriors lead to 3-2.
Veteran forward Brandon Santa Juana evened the score in the 3rd period at the 12:55 mark as Salmon Arm rallied from a two-goal deficit. Santa Juana raced his way down the right wing as he got around a Warriors defender and went to the goal before shoveling the puck through Hamming and tying the game at 3-3.
Both teams had big penalty kills down the stretch as the score remained even into overtime as each team collected a point in standings. Overtime also solved nothing as both Hamming and Tovell stood tall to get into the shootout.
Michael Salandra opened the shootout with a nice move from his backhand to his forehand before finishing on the glove side of Tovell before Ethan Ullrick scored a big goal to keep the shootout going in the 3rd round.
Chris Duclair stepped up in Round #5 and snapped a shot under the glove of Tovell before Hamming made a big blocker save on Santa Juana and gave the Warriors an extra point and the 4-3 shootout win.
Cayden Hamming turned aside 38 of the 41 shots thrown his way and stopped four of the five shooters in the shootout in a strong performance in net in his 9th win of the season while Matthew Tovell made 37 saves on 40 shots before making saves on three of the five shooters he faced in his 3rd shootout loss of the season.
FINAL SCORE: 4-3 Warriors (SO)
SHOTS ON GOAL: 41-41
WARRIORS PP: 0/3
WARRIORS PK: 4/5
3 STARS:
1) Isaac Lambert (1-0-1)
2) Hayden Stavroff (0-1-1)
3) Owen Beckner (0-1-1)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Nathan Mackie (0-0-0)
ATTENDANCE: 1,684
The Warriors (28-20-6-0) have moved into 3rd place in the Interior Conference and will play either the Vernon Vipers or Prince George Spruce Kings in the opening round of the playoffs, to be decided following the result of the Salmon Arm/Penticton game on Sunday. If Salmon Arm wins, the Warriors will face-off against PG while if Penticton wins, it is West Kelowna and Vernon. Playoff schedule and ticket details will be announced shortly.
