PHOTO: Tami Quan
WEST KELOWNA, B.C. – A capacity crowd of 1,507 fans saw the West Kelowna Warriors surrender a pair of two-goal leads as they dropped a 6-5 score in overtime to the Trail Smoke Eaters on Friday night at Royal LePage Place.
Felix Caron added to his team-leading point total with a goal and two assists on the night but a four-point effort from Smoke Eaters captain Ethan Warrener, including a hat-trick, and a two-goal performance from Ridge Dawson helped the Smoke Eaters edge the Warriors.
Trail opened the scoring in the game courtesy of Warrener with a power play marker 2:34 into the 1st period before the Warriors rattled off three consecutive goals, including two in the span of 32 seconds.
Trey Ausmus started that barrage following Felix Caron’s 28th goal of the season tying the game. On a power play of their own, Ausmus slipped a puck through traffic to the front of the goal and past Smoke Eaters netminder Ryan Parker for his 1st career BC Hockey League goal to give West Kelowna their first lead of the night.
Isaiah Norlin added to the Warriors advantage with his 12th goal of the season and put the home side ahead by a pair of goals before the Smoke Eaters clawed back and found the back of the net twice within a pair of minutes to see six goals split between the two sides in the opening 12:08 of the night.
Dawson collected a puck at the top of the right face-off circle and beat Warriors goaltender Rorke Applebee over the glove side to get within one before Warrener’s second of the night on a backhand shot from the right face-off circle evened the game.
The third power play goal between the two teams in the opening period closed a seven-goal outburst as Cal Hughes ripped a one-time shot from the right circle to collect his 21st marker of the season and give the Warriors a 4-3 edge heading into the 2nd period of play.
Trail outshot West Kelowna by a 30-14 margin for the remainder of the game, including 12-7 in the 2nd period but Applebee pushed out a solid performance in goal and kept his team ahead before Jack Pridham added to the Warriors lead late in the middle frame.
In the final five minutes of the period, Pridham collected the puck at the top of the right face-off circle and dragged to the slot before putting his shot through the legs of Parker to earn his 18th goal of the season and give West Kelowna a 5-3 lead into the 3rd period.
The Smoke Eaters continued to press in the 3rd period and put 14 shots to the Warriors net while Warrener completed his hat-trick with a power play goal at 11:33 as his wrist shot had eyes for the back of the net.
Just over two minutes later, a broken stick from the blue line had the puck hop off the end boards and sit right in front of the net for Jason Stefanek, who tied the game and forced into overtime with a 5-5 score.
In the overtime period, the Smoke Eaters outshot the Warriors by a 4-1 margin and won the game on a careen off the end boards as Adam Marshall’s shot banked off the back boards and hit Dawson at the side of the net as the puck popped over the goal line just 1:54 into the extra period and gave Trail a 6-5 overtime win.
Rorke Applebee turned aside 34 of the 40 shots thrown his way in his 6th overtime defeat of the season while Ryan Parker made 21 saves on 26 shots in his 16th win of the year.
FINAL SCORE: 6-5 Smoke Eaters (OT)
SHOTS ON GOAL: 40-26 Smoke Eaters
WARRIORS PP: 2/4
WARRIORS PK: 4/6
3 STARS:
1) Ridge Dawson (2-0-2)
2) Felix Caron (1-2-3)
3) Ethan Warrener (3-1-4)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Trey Ausmus (1-0-1)
ATTENDANCE: 1,507
West Kelowna (27-10-9-0) makes one final trip to the North Okanagan in the regular season as they take on the Vernon Vipers (27-17-1-0) on Saturday night at Kal Tire Place. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM with the game being broadcasted live on AM 1150 as well as streamed online on FloHockey.
