Photo: #13 Marcus Joughin escapes a check from a Vipers player last October.
Photo Credit: Tami Quan
March 9th, 2022
WEST KELOWNA, B.C. – The West Kelowna Warriors head out up to the North Okanagan to take on the Vernon Vipers Wednesday evening.
The Warriors are coming off another fantastic victory over the Prince George Spruce Kings Saturday night. It was a 5-0 score with lots to talk about in regards to great performances. First the obvious. Rookie Justin Katz who stopped all 31 shots he faced picked up his 2nd career BCHL shutout. John Evans registered his 2nd straight multi point game picking up one goal and two assists and then blue liner Tyler Rubin picked up 3 assists in the 5-0 win. John Evans would later earn BCHL First Star of the week honours after scoring 7 points in only 3 games.
Wednesday March 9th @ Vernon Vipers (23-17-4-3): 7:00pm (Warriors lead season series 2-1)
For the first time since December 11th, the Warrior will face the Vernon Vipers. Before January 14th, the Vipers were sitting in 7th place in the BCHL’s Interior Conference standings with injuries piling up. Since then, the Vipers have gone on a serious run including winning 9 straight games and being victorious in 16 of their last 18 games. Biggest difference is their roster. The Vipers may have not added a scoring punch but their defensive play has drastically improved since acquiring former Major Junior standouts Cade McNelly on the back end, Copeland Fricker & Matt Culling up front. The Vipers are also getting much more out of Talon Zakall who was acquired via trade on Dec 10th. Zakall’s first game with the Vipers was Dec 11th versus the Warriors. Then there is between the pipes for the Vipers. Second year goaltender Roan Clarke has been arguably the best goaltender in the BCHL since Jan 14th. Clarke, 18, has two shutouts and a handful of games with over 30 shots faced where he still found a way to win hockey games for the team in front of him. Clarke has also been a brick wall during shootouts since the Christmas break. The Cloverdale native is undefeated in his last 5 attempts. The Warriors need to understand this is a much better and much more improved Vipers team they are facing in Vernon Wednesday night.
This game broadcast will be available on BCHLTV(formally HockeyTV) and the Warriors Mixlr Radio Network. Puck drop at 7:00pm from Kal Tire Place in Vernon. There are tickets available for the Warriors next home game Friday March 11th for Valley First’s Feed the Valley Night at westkelownawarriors.ca.
