Sports can be funny sometimes.
Take the Westside Warriors as an example. Battling to try and catch a playoff spot in the Interior Conference, the Warriors were unable to beat two teams below them in the standings.
Saturday night before close to 1,000 fans at Royal LePage Place, the Warriors turned in an impressive effort in a well-deserved 3-1 victory over the Merritt Centennials, the number two team in the Interior.
Josh Monk snapped a 1-1 tie with a low, hard shot from the right point on a Warriors power-play seven and a half minutes into the final period. The goal, his sixth of the season, stood up as the winner.
Shawn Hochhausen scored an insurance marker 10 minutes later when he drove hard to the net and jammed the puck past Centennials netminder Tyler Steel.
"We set a play up we worked on this week. We set up before the game what we wanted to look for," says Monk of the game winner.
"I was able to get a one-timer off. It was a nice play by (David) Pope to get it to me and it found its way into the net. It's always nice to get one of those to help the team win."
Marcus Basara opened the scoring late in the second period finishing off a nice three-way passing play with linemates Pope and Connor Dempsey. Defenceman Chris Toneff did all the work to get the play started when he was able to battle a Centennial forward for the puck at the blueline and shovel it into the corner where the forwards did the rest of the work.
Warriors coach Rylan Ferster agreed the effort was a 360o turn around from what the players put forth during Friday's lacklustre 4-2 loss to Alberni Valley.
"That's junior hockey. You never know what you're going to get," says Ferster.
"If we get that effort for 60 minutes against Salmon Arm and again last night I think we're 3-0 and we're feeling pretty good about ourselves. As it is we got just one of the three but it's certainly nice to get this last one against a very good team."
The game looked like it would never see its first goal as the netminders, especially Warriors Dwayne Rodrigue were stellar in keeping the game scoreless until the latter stages of the second period.
Rodrigue made three or four spectacular saves during a Centennials power-play in the opening period to keep Merritt off the scoresheet.
His best was an unbelievable toe save off Brayden Low who seemed to have two-third of the net available.
Rodrigue made two other stops off Evan Stack on the same power-play, one on a quick shot off a centering pass at the edge of the crease and the other a nifty deflection from in close.
"He was great," understated Monk.
"On the penalty kill your goalie has to be really good for you and he was great again tonight. We were able to battle a little harder on the penalty kill tonight. That was the difference between last night and tonight."
Merritt outshot Westside 38-22 on the night although Ferster says it's a stat that doesn't really concern him too much.
"I look more at scoring chances. I think that's a team (Merritt) that shoots the puck from absolutely everywhere," says Ferster.
"Watching the game tonight I thought the chances were pretty even. When we go through the video we'll kind of work through that. I always wait for the video."
Saturday's win, coupled with a Chilliwack loss in Trail leaves the Warriors 10 points in back of the Chiefs with 12 games left in the regular season.
The Warriors are off until Wednesday when they host the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. They travel to Penticton Friday and Chilliwack Saturday.
Check out The General’s Report for further coverage of the Westside Warriors.
