Photo Credit: Damon James
August 30th, 2019
TRAIL, B.C. – The West Kelowna Warriors couldn’t solve the Trail Smoke Eaters after suffering a 2-1 loss Friday night.
With some players out with minor injury the Warriors found themselves running a roster similar looking to their Wednesday night matchup versus the Penticton Vees. However this time Head Coach and General Manager Brandon West dressed the top line of Lucas Cullen, Parm Dhaliwal and Mason Richey to give the forward unit a veteran boost. It wasn’t the veterans who made an impact to start the game for the Warriors though. Enter Hayden Gelbard, with the help of some stellar fore-checking by David Vieten collect a loose puck and wrist past Smoke Eaters goaltender Donovan Buskey to make it 1-0 Warriors. The Warriors would later get some key saves from starting goalie Johnny Derrick who made an immediate impact with some key saves through traffic to keep it 1-0 after the first.
The second period kicked off with more power play opportunities for the Warriors. The five man unit of Cullen, Dhaliwal, Richey, John Evans and Nick Ardanaz were able to move the puck well but couldn’t cash in and get quality chances on Donovan Buskey. The Smoke Eaters would start to pick up play midway through the period leading to Kent Johnson passing the puck behind the net to Liam Freeborn to tie the game up at one heading into the dressing room.
The third started with more pressure from the Smoke Eaters who couldn’t beat Johnny Derrick but with under 5 minutes to go Kent Johnson would go back to work and would feed an open Owen Ozar near the crease to give the Smoke Eaters the 2-1 lead late. During the powerplay Warriors defenseman Garrett Ewert was slashed and had to leave the game with an undisclosed injury. The Warriors would push back but Donovan Buskey was sharp to make a couple key stops late in the game leading to a 2-1 Smoke Eaters victory. Final shots 35-19 Smoke Eaters.
The Warriors next Exhibition game is at home Saturday versus the Trail Smoke Eaters. Puck drop 6:00pm from Royal LePage Place. This game will be streamed on Hockey TV and will be broadcast on the Warriors radio network on Mixlr. Tickets are available at the box office one hour before puck drop and kids under 18 get in free with a paying adult.
The Warriors regular season opener is Friday September 6th, visit tickets.westkelownawarriors.ca for details and packages.
