The West Kelowna Warriors dropped their pre season finale to the Merritt Centennials by a 6-3 score in Merritt on Saturday night.
The Centennials, just as they did on Friday night, put three goals on the board in the first period courtesy of Cale Gleekel, Zach Zorn and Nick Fidanza. Shane Farkas, who started the game, was pulled from the Warriors goal in favour of Matt Vernon but would return at the beginning of the 2nd period.
West Kelowna did find the back of the goal before the period was out as Marshall Wilton redirected a point shot from Tyler Anderson on the power play for his second goal in as many nights.
The Warriors got within one on another power play marker as Tyler Anderson cranked a shot from the point that found it’s way through and hit both posts without ever rippling the mesh.
The Cents came back and added a goal before the period was out, with just 1:02 remaining in the middle stanza as Ethan Skinner fired a wrister past Farkas shorthanded to give Merritt a 4-2 advantage.
West Kelowna, again, got to within a goal early in the third period as Parm Dhaliwal worked hard to get to the front of the goal and Chase Dubois tucked in the loose puck on the glove side of Merritt netminder Jacob Berger to make the score 4-3 Cents just 3:14 into the third.
Merritt scored yet another back breaker as Brett Jewell tipped in a Tyrell Buckley point shot on the power play to give the Cents a 5-3 lead with 10:50 to play in the third period.
Nick Fidanza potted an empty netter to seal the victory for Merritt as the Cents swept the two-game home and home series with the Warriors with a 6-3 win.
The Warriors are back in action with their regular season home opener next Friday, September 9th against the Trail Smoke Eaters. Puck drop is 7:00 pm and four banners will be raised to the rafters at Royal LePage Pace as part of what will be a memorable evening. If you can’t make it down to RLP, the game can be seen live on pay-per-view FASTHockey.com or listen for free on the Warriors Internet Network
