The BCHL Fred Page Cup champion West Kelowna Warriors held off a comeback attempt by the MJHL Turnbull Cup winning Portage Terriers to take Game 6 of the Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup (WCC) 3-2 in overtime at Affinity Place on Tuesday afternoon.
Warriors forward Jonathan Desbiens scored the winner 2:23 into the extra frame when he backhanded a shot over Terriers netminder Nathan Park on a drive to the net. The Warriors’ round-robin record improved to 2-1 with the win, while the Terriers fell to 2-0-1.
“As we move forward here every game becomes the most important game of your season really,” said Warriors head coach and general manager Ryan Ferster. “Obviously the first thing you want to do is to be able to get into the final four and then you want to hopefully be in that one or two seed and we’re still alive to have that opportunity, so that’s all we can really look at right now.”
The Warriors jumped out to an early lead 4:16 into the first period when Bryan Basilico tipped a shot from the point top corner while holding his ground in front of the Terriers’ net on a West Kelowna power play. Basilico made it 2-0 about eight minutes later when he popped in a rebound from a point shot by Quin Foreman.
The Terriers came to life after the second goal peppering Warriors goaltender Keelan Williams with shots. Brett Orr brought the Terriers to within one with 21 seconds left in the opening frame off a shot from the hash marks through a screen that went top corner blocker side.
“Our other goalie, Matthew Greenfield, has a concussion,” said Ferster, about his usual starter between the pipes. “He clearly has a concussion from our last game (against the Brooks Bandits). He was run three times. As the penalties showed there was three goalie interference calls.”
Terriers forward Adam Wowryk tied the score at twos 2:57 into the second period when he one-timed a shot from the slot top corner off a juicy rebound from a Brock Weston attempt from the side wall. The Terriers enjoyed better puck possession results through the rest of the second period, but failed to capitalize.
West Kelowna earned the best chances in the third period, but were foiled by a solid performance by Park. The Terriers goalie made two outstanding saves on Warriors forward Liam Blackburn in the third stoning him on a shot from the slot with about six-and-a-half minutes left in the frame and again on a breakaway with just over four minutes to go.
“I just try to focus on the puck and make sure I’m square and if I’m not, try to battle for position,” said Park, who stopped 21 of 24 shots in the game. “That’s what happened on that one that came in the slot there. I wasn’t really right on my post when the pass came out, I was still pushing across, so I just tried to get something in front of it (and I was) able to squeeze there and keep it out.
“On the breakaway, anytime somebody comes down I just come out as far as I can to force him to deek. I’m pretty confident the way I can move latterly, so I just stick to my game plan, play like I can and then hopefully it works out for me.”
Williams, who stopped 32 of 34 shots for the Warriors, said the Terriers made some adjustments in the second period dominating down low and in the corners, so he just did everything he could to keep his team in it. He said the guys in front of him made his job easy in the first and third playing the way they have been all season long.
“You can’t go into a game and over-hype it or think too much about it,” said Williams, about the importance of winning against the Terriers. “You just have to go in and play your own game and our team is really tight. We’ve got a great team and I think we were able to do that tonight.”
