The West Kelowna Warriors struggles on home ice continue.
The Warriors laid an egg Friday before more than 700 fans at snowy Royal
LePage Place, falling 3-0 to the visiting Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
Their record on home ice is a mere 5-6-0-1 while on the road (including
the two Showcase Games in Chilliwack) they're 9-3-0-4.
"I don't know what it is. I think we just keep the game simple on the
road," says assistant coach, Brent Gough.
"Maybe we just play hockey on the road and we're worried about other
things when we're at home. We'll go tomorrow and hopefully get a win."
The Warriors had some jump in their game in the first period but did
nothing with it.
They had chances but either missed the net, couldn't find the open man
or shot the puck right at Salmon Arm netminder Angus Redmond.
"Their goaltender played very well and I think we had some scoring
chances and he made some big saves but I don't think we went to the
greasy areas to get those goals.
We need to regroup and get back at it tomorrow."
The Silverbacks opened the scoring 13 minutes into the first period when
Josh Laframboise banged home his own rebound on a Silverbacks power-play.
The goal stood up as the game winner.
Any life the Warriors had was quickly sucked out 37 seconds into the
second when Chase Priskie's wrist shot from the right point hit
something in front of the net and alluded Warriors goaltender Andy
Desautels.
Karl El-Mir sealed in with two minutes left in the game when he hit the
empty net with Desautels on the bench for an extra attacker.
The Warriors had chances when the game was 1-0 and 2-0 with the man
advantage but again the power-play came up empty.
Their power-play is 14th best in the league on home ice connecting on
less than 15 per cent of their opportunities.
Gough also believes some of the Warriors top players need to start
playing like top players.
"I think our big time guys haven't been very big time for us lately.
They need to start putting that weight on their shoulders and putting
the team on their backs sometimes and saying lets go here."
The Warriors, losers of three of their last four, get a chance for
redemption Saturday when the two teams hook up again in Salmon Arm.
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