PHOTO: Randy Emery/Trail Smoke Eaters
The West Kelowna Warriors make the trek to the Kootenay’s to take on the Trail Smoke Eaters tonight from Cominco Arena.
Season Series:
Friday, September 9th @ Royal LePage Place (3-1 Warriors)
Saturday, September 10th @ Cominco Arena (8-5 Smoke Eaters)
Saturday, November 5th @ Royal LePage Place (5-3 Warriors)
Thursday, November 10th @ Cominco Arena (7:00 PM)
Thursday, December 29th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Friday, December 30th @ Cominco Arena (7:30 PM)
The Warriors enter the night coming off of a tough 6-1 defeat to the hands of the Prince George Spruce Kings as former Warriors Brett Mennear, Tyler Anderson and Tanner Campbell combined for three goals and five points in the victory. Blake Coffey scored the lone Warriors goal while Shane Farkas turned aside 20 of the 26 shots he faced in the losing effort.
The Warriors and Smoke Eaters last met just 5 days ago where West Kelowna skated away with a 5-3 victory with a rather depleted lineup. Chase Dubois registered his first career BCHL hat trick and Quin Foreman added a pair of 3rd period goals for the club’s 9th win of the season. Shane Farkas made 24 saves on 27 shots for his 5th win of the season.
West Kelowna is looking to get back in the win column after their four game winning streak was snapped on Sunday night and will have a new look in their lineup to help that. 17 year-old forward Chase Stevenson has been added to the club from the Okanagan Rockets of the BC Major Midget League. The West Kelowna product was off to a hot start in BCMML play, registering four goals and 12 points in just 6 games played with the Rockets this season after finishing third in team scoring a year ago.
The last visit the Warriors had to Cominco Arena was an 8-5 loss on the 2nd day of the BCHL’s regular season and will look to turn the around to a victory on Thursday night and will need some scoring to help that and veteran Quin Foreman has come through large with that for the Warriors. Foreman leads the club in points with 27 and was named a runner-up for the BCHL’s player of the week last week where he amassed four 3rd period goals and six points in three games, including back-to-back two-goal 3rd periods against Salmon Arm and Trail.
The Warriors have done a good job this season in getting ahead first by scoring the game’s opening goal. West Kelowna has the first goal in 13 of their 20 games this season and has gone on to win eight of those 13 games while opening the game with the lead.
The Smokies come into tonight still buzzing after a resounding 10-3 win over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Tuesday night at home. Luke Santerno scored an impressive four goals while Andre Ghantous, Braeden Tuck, Kale Howarth, Spencer McLean, Ryan Moon and Blaine Caton added singles in the victory. Mitchell Stapley finished the game with four assists while Josh Laframboise added three helpers. Zach Dyment made 23 saves on 26 shots for his seventh win of the season.
Trail is led in scoring by former Cowichan Valley Capital Santerno, his four goal performance vaulting him to a team leading 14 goals and leads the Smoke Eaters with 31 points in 21 games played, which also has him sitting in a tie for third in the league in points. Speaking of scoring, that’s something the Smokies power play knows a lot about this season as they are ranked fourth in the BCHL with a 26.6% man advantage.
The Warriors and Smokies get going from Cominco Arena at 7:00 PM with the pre-game show starting at 6:50 PM on the Warriors Internet Network and hockeytv.com with the Voice of the Warriors Trevor Miller.
