The West Kelowna Warriors look to close out their pre-Christmas schedule on a high-note when they host the Nanaimo Clippers for the lone time this season at Royal LePage Place.
Season Series:
Friday, October 28th @ Frank Crane Arena (3-2 Clippers) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, December 17th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
The Warriors come into Saturday night’s game with a three-game winning streak and their latest victory coming in the fashion of a 6-1 defeat of the Powell River Kings on Teddy Bear Toss Night. Braiden Epp did the honours for the Warriors, making the fur fly just under mid way through the opening period. Jon Russell, Quin Foreman, Scott Allan, Peter Tomaras and Logan Mostat rounded out the scoring for the Warriors in the win. Shane Farkas continued his strong play with 35 saves on 36 shots for his 10th win of the season.
The Warriors and Clippers have played once this season with the meeting happening on Vancouver Island just under two months ago. The Clippers took the opening game of the season series with a 3-2 win on home ice. Jon Russell and Chase Dubois scored for the Warriors while Trevor Martin made his first start of his brief stint with the Warriors, stopping 29 shots on 32 attempts in the losing effort.
West Kelowna has been excellent over their last three games on the winning streak, outscoring their opponents by a 13-5 margin. With the Teddy Bear Toss goal on Friday, Braiden Epp now has scored in five straight games and has bumped his goal total up to 11 on the season. Shane Farkas has been stellar in goal over the past three games, stopping 106 of his last 109 shots faced, good enough for a .972 SV% over that span.
Quin Foreman and Connor Sodergren also kept their point streaks in tact on Friday night with each earning one point, Foreman with a goal and Sodergren assisting on his teammates marker. Foreman now has points in four straight games with two goals and five assists for seven points while Sodergren has points in five straight games with a goal and six assists for seven points as well.
The Nanaimo Clippers enter Saturday night’s affair after dropping the opening game of their three-game road trip by a 6-2 score in Wenatchee against the Wild on Friday night. Matt Creamer and David Eccles provided the offense for the Clippers as Austin Roden was saddled with a heavy night, making 57 saves on 63 shots thrown his way in the losing effort.
The Clippers are led in scoring by third year forward and captain Spencer Hewson who has 7 goals and 23 points amassed on the season. Goal scoring has been an issue for the Clippers so far this season as they sit 14th in the BCHL in that category with 94 goals for on the season. It’s a tight race in the Island Division as well and the Clippers have a slim four point gap between them and the Alberni Valley Bulldogs for that elusive fourth place in the division.
Trying to get the offense going for Nanaimo is Tristan Crozier as the Calgary, Alberta native has multi-point games in each of his last two contests, including a goal and an assist in Wenatchee on Friday and sits just one point behind Hewson for the team lead in scoring. The Clippers hope to string some wins together as they are 2-4-0-0 in the month of December and look to win their first game away from Frank Crane Arena in eight tries as their last road win came on October 25th in Duncan against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
The puck drops at 7:00 PM at Royal LePage Place with another great promotion as its Ugly Sweater Night. Bring your ugliest sweater out to the game and have the chance to win some great prizes! Tickets are available for purchase at the Warriors office or by calling Kim at (250) 769-7051.
