EXPRESS MIXLR BROADCAST

Thursday, September 22, 2016

WARRIORS 2ND PERIOD SHOWCASE OUT GUNS EXPRESS

The West Kelowna Warriors used a four goal second period to pull away from the Express en route to a 5-3 win at the Bauer BCHL showcase. Click here for boxscore

The Express found themselves trailing in the first period when the puck got poked past an Express defender and setting up a 2 on 1 for the Warriors and Quin Foreman finished it off snapping a shot up over the glove of Reid Cooper.

Hayden Knight's first BCHL goal leveled the game at one for the Express after taking a heads up stretch pass from Domenic Masellis then snapping a shot past the glove of Shane Farkas.



West Kelowna caught a break midway through the period when David Guinta's point shot on the power play beat a screened Farkas. The red light came on and but the referee never consulted the goal judge to discuss the play. I personally had an opportunity to see a video replay of the shot between periods and it was clear the puck entered the net and quickly bounced out.

One of the other highlights for the Express in the first period was a big hit delivered by defenseman Cal Walker who lined up Connor Sodergren and leveled him at the glass right in front of the Express bench. Thankfully for Sodergren he hit the padding and bounced up from the hit right away.



The defending national champions then took control of the game in the second period.

Foreman opened the second period by snapping home his second of the game just 11 seconds into the middle frame. Foreman scored 5 goals in two games at the showcase with a 3 goal performance the night before vs. Chilliwack.

Midway through the second period Mitchell Barker found a loose puck in the crease and scored for a 3-1 Warriors lead.

That was followed 27 seconds later by a goal by Reed Gunville for 4-1 Warriors lead just 5 seconds into a power play.

Mitchell Martan scored the Warriors fourth goal of the period taking advantage of a puck handling gaffe by Reid Cooper and he poked it out of the goaltender's feet for a 5-1 lead.

Cam Bertsch ended the Warriors run by cutting the deficit to 5-2 jamming in a loose puck with less than two minutes to go.

But the second period belonged to West Kelowna who outshot the Express 22-9.

Captain Luca Leone scored the lone goal in the third period. He gained entry into the Warriors zone and showed good patience to turn back to give himself time, then hold off another check to get himself more time than blast a shot to cut the deficit down to 5-3.

The Express penalty killers rose to the occasion killing off nearly two full minutes of a Warriors two man advantage.

West Kelowna finished the game outshooting the Express 42-25. In each of the first 5 games this season the Express have allowed 40+ shots.

The Express will play their second game of the showcase Saturday afternoon 3pm vs. the Alberni Valley Bulldogs. 

No comments: