The defending Royal Bank Cup National Champion West Kelowna Warriors will open their 2017 playoff run with a first-round matchup against the Merritt Centennials with Game #1 taking place on Friday night at Royal LePage Place.
Regular Season Series:
Tuesday, September 27th @ Royal LePage Place (5-1 Centennials) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, December 9th @ Royal LePage Place (3-2 Warriors/OT) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, December 10th @ Nicola Valley Memorial Arena (4-2 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, January 6th @ Royal LePage Place (4-1 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, January 7th @ Nicola Valley Memorial Arena (4-1 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, February 3rd @ Nicola Valley Memorial Arena (6-2 Centennials) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, February 24th @ Nicola Valley Memorial Arena (8-3 Centennials) (BOXSCORE)
Playoff Series:
Game #1: Friday, March 3rd @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Game #2: Saturday, March 4th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Game #3: Monday, March 6th @ Nicola Valley Memorial Arena (7:00 PM)
Game #4: Tuesday, March 7th @ Nicola Valley Memorial Arena (7:00 PM)
*Game #5: Thursday, March 9th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
*Game #6: Friday, March 10th @ Nicola Valley Memorial Arena (7:00 PM)
*Game #7: Saturday, March 11th @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
(*- If necessary)
Leading Scorers (West Kelowna):
Quin Foreman 27-42—69
Connor Sodergren 24-35—59
Logan Mostat 18-24—42
Chase Dubois 18-15—33
Braiden Epp 16-17—33
Leading Scorers (Merritt):
Zach Risteau 26-24—50
Cade Gleekel 16-29—45
Brett Jewell 15-21—36
Michael Regush 14-22—36
Zach Court 11-23—34
The Warriors come into Friday night’s playoff game with three straight losses in regular season play, falling to the Penticton Vees, Merritt Centennials and the latest against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks with a 5-3 loss taking place at the Shaw Centre last Saturday, finishing their regular season with a 27-29-0-2 record to sit in fourth place in the Interior Division with 56 points. Michael Ryan, Quin Foreman and Stephen Kleysen picked up goals in the game while affiliate goaltender Owen Partrick made his first BCHL start as he made 23 saves on 27 shots in the loss.
The Warriors won their season series with the Centennials by defeating them four times in the seven games the two teams played against one another. West Kelowna rattled off four straight victories over the course of the season against the Cents with Merritt earning victories in the first game of the season series as well as the final two games. Connor Sodergren and Quin Foreman have shared success against the Centennials this season as Sodergren leads the Warriors with six goals and 13 points against the Cents in the seven game season series while Foreman owns two goals and 10 points in those seven games.
West Kelowna will look to mirror their 2016 playoff run that saw them win their first RBC Cup National Championship in team history. The Warriors owned a record of 24-11 over the course of 35 playoff games last season including 15 of those coming on their way to the Fred Page Cup championship in the BCHL. Six players from last season’s playoff run are back on this year’s squad as Sodergren, Foreman, Jake Harrison, Scott Allan, Jared Marino and Nicholas Rutigliano, although the Warriors captain will likely be sidelined for the first-round series with an injury. Those four veterans will be relied upon for their experience in a series that does not bolster much playoff experience from either side of the puck.
Historically speaking, the Warriors have enjoyed the opening game of the playoffs as they own a 7-2 record in nine game to open the postseason. West Kelowna had won their previous seven games to open the playoffs prior to last season before dropping the opening game of their playoff run in overtime to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. In fact, the last two playoff opening games have gone to overtime with the Warriors having a win and an loss in those two games.
These two teams haven’t met much over the course of the postseason with only one meeting in the playoffs happening in the 2013 playoffs with the Warriors defeating the Centennials in five games. Former Warrior forward Marcus Basara led the team in scoring the 5-game series with three goals and eight points in the lone playoff meeting between the Warriors and Centennials.
The Merritt Centennials enter Game #1 on Friday night with their last game coming against the Warriors one week ago with an 8-3 victory over West Kelowna at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena. Stephan Seeger, Brett Jewell and Zach Zorn each scored twice in the game while Henry Cleghorn and Zach Court added single in the victory. Jacob Berger started the game in goal for the Cents and made 30 saves on 33 shots for his 18th and final victory of the regular season. The Centennials finished the regular season with a 23-25-3-8 record good for 5th place in the Interior Division with a total of 56 points.
The Centennials finished the regular season with 185 goals for, good for 10th in the BCHL in scoring. Rookie forward Zach Risteau was the Interior Division’s nominee for Rookie of the Year and he led the Cents in scoring with 26 goals and 50 points in 53 games played. Another rookie in the likes of Cade Gleekel led the Centennials in assists with 29 and was second in points to Risteau with a total of 45 in his 57 games played. It was Gleekel and Risteau that led the charge in scoring against the Warriors this season as well as the two American forwards were each a point per game player against West Kelowna. Gleekel led the team with two goals and 8 points in the seven game season series while Risteau was right behind him with four goals and seven points.
This will be the first time since the 2014/15 season, and the second time under the reign of current head coach Joe Martin, that the Centennials are playoff bound. The two teams are in quite the contrast when it comes to playoff experience as the Cents enter the series with 31 career Junior ‘A’ playoff games under their belt while the Warriors have plenty of playoff experience in their lineup with 250 career games between them playing at the Junior ‘A’ level in the postseason. Only forward Nick Fidanza, forward Stephan Seeger and defenseman Tyrell Buckley remain from the last time the Centennials made the playoffs, which was in 2015.
The Warriors and Centennials will drop the puck at 7:00 PM with tickets available at the Warriors office or by calling Kim at (250) 769-7051. Fans are encouraged to stay in their seats for the first intermission of the game as Director of Business Operations Alex Draper will announce the news on what the state of the franchise will be for next season. West Kelowna and Merritt will do it all over again in Game #2 which takes place on Saturday night at RLP before the series shifts to Merritt for Games #3 and 4.
