West Kelowna Warriors edge visiting Silverbacks

WEST KELOWNA – It was a second period flurry of action gave the West Kelowna Warriors a 3-2 lead over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, but a defensive third period sealed the deal as the Warriors got past the visiting Silverbanks 3-2 at Royal Lepage Place on Friday night, Jan. 10.

A scoreless first period saw the Warriors throw 16 pucks towards Angus Redmond in the Salmon Arm net, but Redmond stood tall turning them all away.

Andy Desautels, who returned after missing eight games after an appendectomy made maybe his biggest stop with his team on the power-play in the first period, as Josh Blanchard had a breakaway turned aside by the Warriors netminder.

“I had a feeling he was going to go five-hole and it worked out,” said a sweaty Desautels after the game, “there’s been a lot of prep work to get back in the lineup but I’m very happy with tonight’s result.” Desautels was named the first star.

The second period opened up with a weird goal that ended up bouncing high in the air and sat on the goal line for Blanchard to poke over. It appeared like Blanchard was the only player on the ice to know where the puck was.

West Kelowna came back with Jonathan Desbien’s 18th goal of the season as he went streaking down the right wing and snapped a shot over the pad of Redmond.

Andrew Johnson would get goal number 15 on the year after deflecting a Brayden Gelsinger shot through the pads. Gelsinger would finish with three assists.

Blanchard’s second goal of the night would tie it up again, but Jordan Masters bounced a puck off the back of Redmond below the goal line with 32.3 seconds remaining in the middle frame to take a 3-2 score to the locker room.

Another defensive period met the teams in the third period and Desautels turned aside ten shots including a couple of great scoring chances late.

Shots on goal finished 35-33 in favour of West Kelowna.