PHOTO: Wayne Moore/Castanet
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 25th, 2017
WEST KELOWNA, B.C. –The West Kelowna Warriors used two Jake Harrison goals and three third period goals to push themselves to a 4-3 victory over the Merritt Centennials in exhibition play on Friday night at Royal LePage Place.
The Warriors opened the game with good jump but it was the Centennials that opened the scoring the game and provided the lone goal in the first period of play. A speedy Jack Vincent rushed down the right wing and fed a backdoor pass to Mitch Ledyard who made no mistake to give Merritt a 1-0 lead at the 4:16 mark and provide the only scoring of the period.
Billy Girard started the game for the Warriors and looked good in first frame, stopping nine of the ten shots directed to his goal while he was opposed by Vincent Duplessis in the Merritt crease and was equally as good for the Cents, saving all eight shots that he faced.
The 2nd period saw a pair of goals by each squad, starting with the Centennials taking a 2-0 lead early in the frame, at the 2:25 mark of the period as a Frazer Dodd deflection of a Jake Berry shot slid through the legs of Girard to double the Merritt advantage.
West Kelowna got on the board just moments later at the 5:57 mark of the 2nd period on a gorgeous tic-tac-toe passing play to cut the deficit to one. Cavin Tilsley started the play, passing below the goal line to Matt Kowalski who had his centering pass hit Willie Reim in the right circle before Reim perfectly placed a wrist shot over the glove of Duplessis to give the Warriors their first goal and make the score 2-1 in favour of Merritt.
The Warriors were gifted with a 5-on-3 at the midway point of the 3rd period and were able to capitalize in a big way to earn themselves a tie game. At 10:57 of the frame, Kowalski teed up Jake Harrison with a one-timer that fired past the blocker side of new Merritt netminder Jordan Naylor to push the game to a tie at 2-2.
Just 13 seconds after Harrison’s first goal, the Warriors 18-year-old defenseman struck again as he moved in tight with a backhand-forehand move off a pass from Chase Dubois to beat Naylor on his glove side for his second goal of the period and give the Warriors their first lead of the night at 3-2.
The Centennials struck about six minutes after that on a power play of their own at the 17:28 mark of the 3rd period as Mitch Ledyard tallied his second goal of the game with a one-timer from the right face-off circle to push Merritt even at 3-3 in the late stages of the game.
The Warriors didn’t waste much time to get their lead back as just nine seconds after the Ledyard marker, Chase Dubois put West Kelowna on top for good. Chase Stevenson led the rush on the left wing centering a pass to Parm Dhaliwal, whose shot careened off a defender in front and was thwarted in on the backhand by Dubois to give the Warriors a 4-3 advantage, which would eventually be the final score.
It was a big night for the returning players for West Kelowna as Harrison scored twice with Dubois adding a goal and an assist along with Dhaliwal’s two helpers. Matt Kowalski also added two assists for the Warriors tonight who had Billy Girard start the game, making 20 saves on 22 shots through two periods before being relieved by Carlos Siso who stopped 8 of the 9 shots thrown his way in the victory.
Vincent Duplessis starting in between the pipes for the Centennials, turning aside 17 of the 18 Warriors shot toward his net while Jordan Naylor came on in the third period and was given the loss in the game, making 9 saves on 12 shots in the defeat.
The Warriors head out on the road for the first time this preseason with a matchup against these same Centennials Saturday night at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena in Merritt for a 7:00 PM face-off. The pre-game show starts as 6:55 PM on the Warriors Internet Network and HockeyTV.com with the voice of the Warriors, Trevor Miller.
The Warriors are searching for food and beverage servers to enhance their in-game experience at Royal LePage Place this season! For more information and to learn how to apply for the position, please call Alex Draper at (250) 575-2400 or email him at alex@westkelownawarriors.ca.
