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GAME RECAP: Warriors Late Comeback Spurs 6-6 Tie vs. Kings

PHOTO: Tami Quan Photography

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DECEMBER 17th, 2017

WEST KELOWNA, B.C. – The West Kelowna Warriors came back from a three-goal 3rd period deficit and tied the Powell River Kings 6-6 on Sunday afternoon at Royal LePage Place to close out their pre-Christmas schedule.

The Kings opened the scoring in a high-scoring opening frame as Hunter Findlater took a turnover in the neutral zone and sauced a pass to the back door for a rushing Kyle Kawamura and he made not mistake with a shot past the blocker side of Warriors netminder Cole Demers to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

West Kelowna tied the game just under four minutes later at the 8:05 mark of the 1st period as the Warriors converted on a power play. Willie Reim came out from the right-wing corner and put a backhand shot past Kings goaltender Matteo Paler-Chow for his 9th goal of the season and a 1-1 tie.

Jonny Evans gave the Kings their second lead of the game at the 11:14 mark of the 1st period on a power play and stemmed from a nice passing play at the tail end of a 5-on-3 power play. Evans got a pass from Andy Stevens at the top of the right-wing face-off circle and wired a one-timer past Demers on the blocker side to restore Powell River’s advantage at 2-1.

The Warriors tied the game once again with just 13 seconds remaining in the period as Jake Harrison converted on a 5-on-3 power play. Harrison took a Michael Ryan feed and shot it past Paler-Chow and his 6th goal of the season tied the score at 2-2 to head into the 1st period.

Early in the 2nd period, the Kings regained their lead as Ben Berard sniped a shot up and over the glove side of Demers off the rush and Powell River took their third lead of the night as they took an early 3-2 advantage.

Powell River opened up a two-goal lead just under three minutes after that as Hunter Findlater buried a loose puck from the slot and the Kings second power play of the afternoon pushed their advantage to 4-2.

The Warriors got back to within a goal as Max Bulawka capped off a nice tic-tac-toe passing play between Bulawka, Jordan Todd and Spencer Hora. Todd started the play with a pass from the left-wing face-off circle that found Hora on the right-wing who then passed in front for Bulawka and he went forehand-backhand and passed Paler-Chow for the 4-3 Powell River lead after 40 minutes of play.

The Kings restored another two-goal advantage just 23 seconds into the 3rd period as Jonny Evans tallied his second goal of the night as he deflected in a pass to the backdoor from Carmine Buono on the blocker side and gave Powell River a 5-3 lead early in the 3rd period.

The Kings opened up their biggest lead of the game at the 9:33 mark of the 3rd period as Kyle Kawamura added his second goal of the game as his shot from the slot got past Demers on the blocker side and gave the Kings a 6-3 lead.

The comeback began with a Chase Dubois shot from the high slot that sniped past the glove side of Paler-Chow for his 14th goal of the season at 12:23 of the 3rd period to cut the deficit to two goals at 6-4.

Michael Lombardi pushed the Warriors closer on a goal at the 17:29 mark of the 3rd period on a scramble to the glove side of Paler-Chow and his 10th goal of the season made it a one-goal game at a 6-5 Powell River advantage.

With 1:02 remaining, the Warriors completed their three-goal 3rd period comeback as the captain Jared Marino tapped in a backdoor pass from the point by Michael Ryan and tied the game at 6 with his 13th goal of the season and forced overtime.

In the extra session, both teams had good chances to score but the goaltenders stood tall and kept the game even with the Warriors outshooting the Kings 4-1 in the first overtime while the 3-on-3 period saw a big save by Demers on Kawamura to preserve the tie with both teams finishing with a pair of shots each as the game ended in a 6-6 tie.

Cole Demers got the start in goal for the Warriors making 25 saves on 31 shots for his 1st tie of the season while Matteo Paler-Chow turned aside 43 of the 49 shots he saw for his 2nd tie of the season.

FINAL SCORE: 6-6 Tie

FINAL SHOTS ON GOAL: 49-31 Warriors

Warriors PP: 2/8

Warriors PK: 3/5

3 Stars:

1) Jake Harrison (2-1-3)

2) Jonny Evans (2-0-2)

3) Jared Marino (1-0-1)

Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Max Bulawka (1-0-1)

ATTENDANCE: 706

The Warriors (18-15-1-1) head to the Christmas break with their next matchup upcoming on Friday, December 29th against the Trail Smoke Eaters at Royal LePage Place. Tickets are available online at wkw.goticketpro.com, at the Warriors office, by calling (250) 769-7051 or at the box office ahead of the opening face-off.