Shawn Hochhausen led the way offensively and James Leonard earned his first victory in goal as the Westside Warriors beat Trail 4-1 on Thursday night.
The game was a rough and chippy affair, with around 60 minutes in penalties served as well as a fight between Westside’s David Pope and Trail’s Taylor House.
After having lost their previous matchup against Trail in overtime, the Warriors seemed determined to pull away, scoring three times in the final period to claim the victory.
As well as scoring a pair of goals himself, Shawn Hochhausen assisted on a beautiful late tally from Connor Dempsey. Max French also proved instrumental in setting up Reid Simmonds’ game-winner early in the third.
Erik Cooper scored the lone Trail marker on a Smokies powerplay late in the second.
In his first start since Nov. 19th, back-up goalie James Leonard made 26 saves for his first BCHL victory. Lyndon Stanwood made several remarkable saves in the Trail net, but was tagged for 4 goals in the loss.
“Boy was I ever nervous” laughed Leonard after the game. However, the Kamloops native also stressed that his team played well in front of him, making his life easy. “I felt really good out there, and I knew from the get-go that I was going to get the win.”
Westside Alternate Captain Shawn Hochhausen also lauded his team’s overall performance, as well as the way his team battled through plenty of rough stuff from the hosts.
“We’re not going to ever back down” says Hochhausen of his team’s mentality. “We came at them hard and came out with the win.”
Westside visits Vernon on Saturday night before returning home to face Chilliwack on Sunday.
Both games will be stiff tests for the Tribe, pitting the 6th place Warriors against the two teams directly ahead of them in the standings – both of whom are in a dog-fight for the final playoff spot in the BCHL’s Interior Conference.
Check out The General’s Report for more on the Westside Warriors.
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