Warriors 7 - Capitals 1

The West Kelowna Warriors got things off on the right foot Friday night in Cowichan Valley, with a 7-1 whomping of the Capitals. Matthew Greenfield kept the Warriors in the game early as the Capitals jumped out to a big edge in shots, but Jonathan Desbiens had the Warriors on the board early.

Rylan Yaremko made it 2-0 on the power play in the first period as well, as West Kelowna finished off a solid road period.

In the middle frame, Kade Kehoe cut the Warriors lead in half, but Bryan Basilico scored maybe the biggest goal of the game to give the Warriors a 3-1 edge after forty minutes, although they were still being out-shot.

West Kelowna scored quickly to start the third, as both Desbiens and Garrett Forster found the net in the first 1:10 of the period. It was then Forster who made it 6-1 moments later with a nifty deflection, reaching back to tip a puck that was going five feet wide of the net. The puck bounced between the skates of Storm Phaneuf. The scoreboard went to 7-1 as Tyler Anderson went in and ripped a wrister past Phaneuf, ending his night.

Rough stuff was the next order of business after Josh Adkins kicked the feet out from underneath Greenfield, sparking a melee in the corner. It was one Capital against five Warriors until the Capitals finished their change and came flying in to join the scrum. There were seven Capitals on the ice at one point, although just five were in the scrum. Adkins was ejected for the second goaltender interference call of the game against Cowichan Valley. There would be some more hard hits in the last five minutes, but nothing else major occurred.

Game Thoughts:

• The Warriors had a picture-perfect start to their seven straight games on the road, up 2-0 with a great road period. Goaltending has been a great story since just before Christmas, and last night was no exception. Matthew Greenfield made some big saves early in the game, and that sparked West Kelowna. Greenfield was not flashy on many saves, but did flash the leather on a couple of shots in the second period, and got help from his post as well. He saw traffic in the blue paint all night long as well.
• Speaking of traffic, Greenfield was interfered with three or four times in the game, and twice cost the Capitals a man, plus cost them a goal. The Capitals thought they had tied the game at one in the middle of the first period, but Greenfield had been spun around by a Caps forward, and the goal was waved off. There was a goaltender interference penalty against Cowichan in the second period as Jared Domin ran into Greenfield, and then Adkins as outlined above. Greenfield was bumped again after the Adkins skirmish, but nothing came of that one.
• Jonathan Desbiens had a four-point night, scoring twice and adding a pair of assists. He scored a goal scorers goal in tight in the opening frame, and a nice shot in the third to grow the lead. While it looked like he would tie up/get much closer to Liam Blackburn for the team lead, it was Blackburn with a somewhat quiet 3 assists to keep a gap. Looking back on the goals though, Blackburn made a nice play from below the goal line on both Basilico's and Yaremko's goals.