The West Kelowna Warriors open the 2016/17 regular season at Royal LePage Place tonight when they take on the Trail Smoke Eaters.
The Warriors will be raising four banners ahead of tonight’s game as Interior Division Champions, BCHL Champions, Western Canada Cup Champions and RBC Cup National Champions. Fans are encouraged to head to the rink as early as possible tonight to get to their seat and watch the banners go to the rafters.
West Kelowna will look to continue their success from their championship season last year in the first game of the season. The Warriors played to a 2-3-1 record over six pre season games while having a 1-1-1 record on home ice during three games.
Seven players return from last season’s championship squad in the likes of captain Nick Rutigliano, Connor Sodergren, Quin Foreman, Tyler Anderson along with Jared Marino, Reed Gunville and Jake Harrison. Sodergren, Foreman and Anderson were named as alternate captains to help Rutigliano in the leadership group earlier this week.
West Kelowna will see a change in goal after the backbone of last year’s team (Matt Greenfield) is off to the University of Calgary as Shane Farkas will man the Warrior net and start for the defending national champions tonight. Farkas spent much of the Warriors championship run last season as the team’s third goaltender.
As for Trail, the Smoke Eaters enter the 2016/17 season looking to make the postseason for the first time since the 2010/11 season. The Smokies have finished in 6th place in the Interior Division the past three seasons.
The Smoke Eaters played just two pre season contests, losing both games in a home-and-home series with the Penticton Vees. Trail dropped the first game in Penticton by a 9-0 score while falling 5-2 at home to the Vees one night later.
Trail is also returning seven of their players from last year’s squad including newly appointed captain Connor Brown-Maloski, Spencer McLean, Ross Armour, Blaine Caton, Kale Howarth, Mitchell Stapley and goaltender Linden Marshall. The Smoke Eaters just announced their captain Brown-Maloski yesterday along with alternate captains Caton, former Cowichan Valley Capital Luke Santerno and former Salmon Arm Silverback Josh Laframboise.
Speaking of Santerno and Laframboise, those were two of the five deals the Smokies made in the off-season, also acquiring defensemen Troy Ring from Langley, Konsta Jaske from the Wenatchee Wild, Cole Williams from the Norte Dame Hounds (SJHL) and former Silverback goaltender Zach Dyment from the AJHL’s Sherwood Park Crusaders.
Along with the change on the ice, the Smokies made one behind the bench over the summer as Nick Deschenes was relieved of his duties as head coach and GM at the end of the 2015/16 season and brought on new head coach and GM Cam Keith.
The Warriors and Smokies will do it all again in Trail tomorrow night at 7:00 PM. Both games can be seen live on pay-per-view on FASTHockey.com or listen for free on the Warriors Internet Network.
