Veteran Dru Morrison notched the game winner with less than 45 seconds remaining in regulation time Saturday giving the Westside Warriors a 3-2 victory over the visiting Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
It was the Warriors first pre-season victory following a pair of 2-1 overtime defeats.
Connor Dempsey and 16-year-old defenceman Adam Plant also scored for the Warriors.
Dempsey drove his defenceman deep during the odd man rush then found Morrison in the right face-off circle who sent a one-timer to the far side past Silverbacks goaltender Adam Clark.
Steve Racine and Brandon Lane split the netminding chores.
Racine played the first 30 minutes allowing two goals on 10 shots while Lane finished the up holding the Silverbacks at bay the rest of the way stopping all eight shots he faced.
Warriors coach Rylan Ferster says he likes what he has seen from the back end so far. through three pre-season games, the club has allowed just six goals.
"I want our team to be good on defence. I think we're going to be, actually, I know we're going to commit to defence but probably express ourselves on offence," says Ferster.
"We want to give up under 25 shots a night."
The Warriors have accomplished that through each of the first three pre-season games despite having a different set of defencemen in the line-up each time out.
Offensively, Ferster says there's a little concern but would prefer to win games 3-2 than 7-6.
"If we commit defensively and cash in on some of our power-plays and get that going, hopefully we'll score more than the other team."
The Warriors clicked on just one of nine opportunities with the man advantage while holding Salmon Arm to only one goal in seven chances.
The Warriors went most of the night without forward Seb Lloyd who was given an early shower after receiving a checking from behind penalty midway through the first.
Westside outshot Salmon Arm 39-18 over the course of the 60 minutes.
The Warriors, 1-2 on the pre-season, play host to the Vernon Vipers at
11 a.m. next Tuesday, a game geared towards School District 23 students.
They close out pre-season next weekend with games in Prince George Friday and Salmon Arm Saturday before opening the regular season the following weekend with back-to-back games in Trail.
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