PHOTO: Alexander Patton
The Spruce Grove Saints pushed late but couldn’t overcome an early deficit, falling 3–2 to the West Kelowna Warriors on Saturday night.
West Kelowna opened the scoring at 9:47 of the first period on the power play when Kelsen Podworny buried his fifth goal of the season off a setup from Olivier Chan to give the Warriors a 1–0 lead after one period.
The Warriors extended their advantage early in the second. Just 1:13 into the frame, Podworny struck again, finishing a play from Chan and Carson Pavlowich to make it 2–0. West Kelowna added another at 12:47 when Blake Burke scored his 11th of the season off assists from Max Kelly and Ruslan Jamaldinov, stretching the lead to three.
Spruce Grove answered later in the second period. At 15:39, Scott Sandilands got the Saints on the board, scoring his seventh of the season with assists from Owen Leckelt and Robert Fedor to cut the deficit to 3–1 heading into the third.
The Saints continued to push in the final frame. With the power play late in the game, Tre Peck scored at 16:51 of the third period—his 16th goal of the season—off passes from James Richards and Declan Waddick to bring Spruce Grove within one.
Despite pulling the goaltender for an extra attacker, the Saints couldn’t find the equalizer. Warriors netminder Bor Glavič stopped 46 of 48 shots to secure the win, while Ryan De Kok made 26 saves on 29 shots for Spruce Grove.
The Saints generated plenty of offense, outshooting the Warriors heavily, but West Kelowna’s early scoring and strong goaltending proved to be the difference in the 3–2 result.
