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Sloppiness costs Warriors, ‘Backs win in Overtime

It was not the ideal first half of the four game road trip…

After falling to the Vipers in a sloppy one in Vernon on Friday night, the West Kelowna Warriors travelled to the newly-renamed Rogers Rink in Salmon Arm, for the first of six meetings with the team that bounced them from last year’s playoffs.  The Warriors and Silverbacks were both coming into the Saturday night clash with something to prove, as both had dropped their previous games the night before, West K’s aforementioned 6-3 loss in Vernon, and Salmon Arm’s 4-2 loss in Penticton.

Tensions clearly still lingered from last Spring, as Patrick Raftery and Landen Hilditch dropped the mitts late in the first period of play.  Hilditch landed a pair of overhand rights before Raftery landed a couple punches of his own, and then the two would wrestle each other to the ice, to the delight of the crowd.  After a scoreless thirty-four minutes to start the game, Salmon Arm finally broke the stalemate, as Kaycee Coyle was able to jam the puck from below the goal line into the slot for Maddox Martin, who ripped a one-timer past Dawson Labre to give the home team a 1-0 lead.

Five minutes into the third, a Hughes-Kyrkostas led breakout would be the catalyst for the game’s tying goal, as Jackson fired a cross-ice pass over to Sam LeDrew, who pumped it high from the right faceoff dot for his third of the season, and fourth point in four career games since joining the Warriors last weekend.

After 60 minutes solved nothing, the Warriors and Silverbacks went to overtime.  After a thwarted Salmon Arm chance, Cal Hughes and Jackson Kyrkostas hopped on their horses to jumpstart a 2-on-1 opportunity back the other way.  The only problem; Simon Houge, West K’s third skater in OT, and the puck carrier at the time, was unaware that his linemates had already evacuated the zone.  In an attempt to keep possession, Houge threw a blind drop pass back into the nearside corner, where ‘Backs forward Roenick Jodoin collected the puck, raced to the slot, and ripped a shot over the glove of Labre to give the home team the OT win.

This coming week, the Warriors round off the second half of the four game road trip in Chilliwack for the 2024 BCHL Showcase.  On Tuesday, October 15, West Kelowna challenges the hometown Chilliwack Chiefs at 5:30, then on Wednesday, it’s a date with the BCHL leading Brooks Bandits.