PHOTO: Trevor Cawley
CRANBROOK, B.C. – The West Kelowna Warriors saw a 3-1 lead slip away as they dropped Game 4 of their best-of-seven Interior Conference Quarter Final series by a 4-3 score to the Cranbrook Bucks on Wednesday night at Western Financial Place.
The Warriors continue to lead the series 3-1 with Game 5 of the set upcoming on Friday night at Royal LePage Place. Tickets will go on sale at 9 AM on Thursday morning for the 7 PM puck drop on Friday in West Kelowna.
A penalty filled opening period saw each team finding the back of the net once and began with the Bucks scoring courtesy of a 5-on-3 power play that had just one second remaining in it. Shane Baker found a puck on the blocker side off of a body from a shot from the blue line that slid past Matthew DellaRusso in the Warriors net and a 1-0 Bucks lead at the 11:50 mark of the period.
16-year-old Dylan Krayer provided the equalizer for the Warriors under two minutes later on a fortuitous bounce off the penalty box door. Jack Farrell’s clear in attempt hit the stanchion and came back to the middle of the ice where he collected and fed a pass to the left face-off circle as Krayer snapped a shot past the blocker side of Carter Capton for his first career playoff goal and tied the game at the 13:13 mark of the period.
The middle frame of the game heavily favoured the Warriors as they outshot the Bucks by a 17-9 margin in the 2nd period and created the only goal as well as regular season leading scorer Felix Caron buried his 3rd of the playoffs early in the period to give the Warriors their first lead of the night.
Johannes Løkkeberg knifed his way inside of the offensive zone and fed a pass just inside the blue line to Caron, who stepped around a Bucks defender and cut to the slot before firing a shot through Capton and into the back of the net for his third goals in two games just 1:07 into the period to give the Warriors a 2-1 edge in the game.
DellaRusso remained strong in the period, turning aside each of the 9 shots thrown his way in the middle stanza and 22 of the 23 shots he faced in the game up to that point that helped the Warriors to a one-goal lead into the 3rd period of play.
The Warriors found themselves shorthanded early in the period but were able to find the back of the net while down a player as Viggo Nordström got a loose puck in the left face-off circle and slid a shot through the legs of Capton for his 1st playoff goal at 1:47 of the 3rd period to give West Kelowna a two-goal edge.
West Kelowna was penalized shortly after that, creating a five-on-three situation for Cranbrook again and it was Tyler Wishart scoring just 10 seconds into that chance to make it a one-goal game, taking a Sodergren pass on the goal line on the glove side and firing a shot past the Warriors goaltender to make the score 3-2.
The Bucks kept the momentum coming their way with Jack Silich tying the game at the 7:04 mark of the period with a wrist shot. Silich took a Noah Urness drop pass just inside the blue line and fired a wrist shot over the blocker shoulder of DellaRusso to tie the game at 3-3 heading into the final stretch of the period.
With just under five minutes remaining in the game, the puck was sent wide of the Warriors goal in the slot before Sodergren collected below the goal line and banked the puck off the right pad of DellaRusso into the back of the net to push the Bucks ahead by a 4-3 score with 4:50 remaining in the game.
West Kelowna earned a late power play in the game but could not convert as the Bucks came away with the Game 4 victory. Matthew DellaRusso turned aside 38 of the 42 shots thrown his way in his 1st loss of the playoffs while Carter Capton made 33 saves on 36 shots in his 1st playoff win.
FINAL SCORE: 4-3 Bucks
SHOTS ON GOAL: 42-36 Bucks
WARRIORS PP: 0/5
WARRIORS PK: 5/7
3 STARS:
1) Loke Sodergren (1-2-3)
2) Shane Baker (1-0-1)
3) Dylan Krayer (1-0-1)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Samuel Lyne (0-0-0)
ATTENDANCE: 1,095
The Warriors hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 5 of the Interior Conference Quarter Finals taking place on Friday night at Royal LePage Place at 7 PM. Tickets will go on sale at 9 AM on Thursday morning and are available online on the Warriors website as well as in-person at the Warriors Office or at the Box Office, open one hour before puck drop.
