Matthew Greenfield was solid for a 3rd straight game as the Warriors won an emotional and chippy game 4-1 over the Trail Smoke Eaters on Wednesday night at the Cominco Arena.
West Kelowna opened the game with an aggressive mentality, dominating the shot clock with 8 quick shots, including Quin Foreman’s quick wrister just 2 minutes in. After great hard work from Jared Marino and Reed Gunville, the puck popped free to Foreman who made no mistake.
The game began to get really physical in the middle period, as the Warriors made the undisciplined Smokies pay with a pair of power-play goals.
Liam Blackburn fired a quick one just 5 seconds into one of the man advantages, before Jonathan Desbiens shot snaked through the legs in front to make it 3-0 after 40 minutes.
Rough stuff was the order of the day in the 3rd period, as multiple infractions were called as Trail tried continuously to crash into Greenfield. There were multiple instances of coincidentals and bad blood between these two in the 3rd.
Kale Howarth got the Smoke Eaters on the board with the man-advantage in the 3rd, but Blackburn sealed the deal by out-muscling a Trail player to score into the empty net and earn 3rd star honours.
Greenfield was the games 1st star for the 2nd time in 3 starts, making 34 saves.
West Kelowna resumes play on Saturday January 2nd in Merritt at 7:30, before returning home to play the Surrey Eagles Sunday at 2:30.
