Warriors fall 3-2 to Vipers

WEST KELOWNA – The West Kelowna Warriors had another valiant effort fall short as the Vernon Vipers skated away with a 3-2 victory over the Warriors at Royal LePage Place on Saturday night.

The Vipers were first on the scoreboard as Austin Adamson fired a shot low blocker side by Warrior netminder Xavier Burghardt for his first BCHL goal for a 1-0 Vernon lead at the 12:56 mark of the first period.

The Warriors tied the game at the 17:47 mark on the power play after a nice deflection past Viper goaltender Cole Demers by Braiden Epp off of a Jake Harrison point shot to pull the home side even at one goal a piece.

Vernon retook their lead just under two minutes later with 30 seconds remaining in the period as Christian Cakebread found the back of the net on a goal line shot on the power play for the 2-1 Viper lead after a first period that saw West Kelowna fire twenty shots on goal.

The 2nd period, as it was in Friday night’s hockey game, was scoreless with the Warriors outshooting the Vipers by a 13-11 margin.

The third period saw each team score once and it started early, just 1:06 into the final frame as Austin Adamson potted his second of the game, winning the face-off and bunting the puck past Burghardt for the 3-1 Viper lead.

West Kelowna got within one goal courtesy of Epp’s 2nd goal of the game. After a Mitch Barker slot shot that Demers kicked out, the rebound found Epp who made no mistake at the 6:55 mark of the third period to make it a 3-2 Viper lead, where it would stand for the rest of the game as the Warriors couldn’t find the tying marker.

Xavier Burghardt made 33 saves on 36 shots in the loss while Cole Demers stopped 39 of the 42 shots directed his way for his 2nd win of the season.

The Warriors (5-5-0-0) will head out to Salmon Arm on Friday night to take on the Silverbacks (4-6-0-0) at the Shaw Centre. Puck drop is 7:00 pm with pre game starting at 6:50 pm on the Warriors Internet Network and FASTHockey.com.