The Westside Warriors have wrestled home ice advantage away from the Vernon Vipers.
The task at hand is to hold on to it.
The Warriors and Vipers meet Friday night at Royal LePage Place in game three of their best-of-seven Interior Conference semi-final series.
Westside grabbed home ice advantage after beating the Vipers 5-2 in Vernon Wednesday to even the series at a game apiece.
“We'd like to get a series lead more than anything else. Home ice is what it is,” says Warriors head coach, Darren Yopyk.
“It's game three. Whether it's in Vernon or Westside, I don't know how much it matters. We just need to go out and try to get a win.”
The Warriors were winners Wednesday despite taking their lumps on the shot clock.
The Vipers outshot Westside 40-24 Wednesday and hold a 79-44 edge over the first two games.
It's a stat Yopyk doesn't put much stock in.
“If we score five goals in a game I think we'll be successful whether it's 20 shots or 50 shots. Shots on goal are a funny stat, they're done by someone standing in the stands and sometimes they are not very accurate at all.”
He says the team has done a good job of limiting the Vipers chances and keeping their shots to the outside and Kevin Boyle has done a great job so far with the rest.
Yopyk adds the recipe for success is relatively simple.
“I think we need to continue to bring the puck out well and try to minimize their forecheck. We have to get pucks to the net and traffic to the net and do a really good job on special teams.”
Yopyk says the Warrior special teams have been very good so far in the series.
The Warriors head into Friday's game with one significant new injury.
Grayson Downing is expected to miss his second straight game after being hurt in game one of the series. Forward Stefan Nicholishen is also day to day and will likely miss Friday's game.
Game four in the series goes Saturday at RLP before the series shifts back to Vernon for game five in Vernon Monday.
Game six if needed would be played back in West Kelowna next Tuesday night.
