PHOTO: Tami Quan
A pair of penalties early in the game lead to two of three West Kelowna Warrior goals in the opening 20 minutes and were part of the Spruce Grove Saints 5-3 loss on Saturday night at Royal LePage Place.
A double-minor high sticking penalty and a tripping call on the same sequence saw the Warriors head to a 5-on-3 power play and were able to capitalize twice to get themselves ahead early and put the Saints behind the eight ball early in the contest. Ruslan Jamaldinov took a pass in the slot and zipped a shot past the blocker side of Ryan De Kok for the early advantage before Natan Ethier scored one of his two first period tallies to push the lead to 2-0 in the opening frame.
Another power play goal, the third of the period for West Kelowna, came at the end of a tic-tac-toe passing play as Ethier scored his second of the frame to push the Warriors lead to a 3-0 margin before the opening period concluded.
Dylan Krayer added to the Warriors lead to push the score to 4-0 as he took a Carter Oakenfold pass in the left face-off circle and whipped a shot past De Kok before the Saints had a response and scored their first goal of the game as Frederic Deschenes, a former Warrrior, buried his 2nd goal of the season to cut the deficit to three. Deschenes took a Tre Peck pass at the left point and slapped a shot past the blocker side of Angelo Zol to get the Saints on the scoresheet in the second period before another Krayer tally got the Warriors lead back to four goals heading into the final period.
The final 20 minutes were the best of the game for the Saints, outshooting the Warriors by a 13-5 margin in the third period and collecting two goals in the process. Adam Perron earned his first goal of the season with just under five minutes remaining in the final frame as he poked a Brandon Funk pass past the blocker side of Zol before Declan Waddick finished the game with a marker with just two seconds remaining in the contest to see the final score finish at 5-3.
Ryan De Kok made 22 saves on 27 shots in his 5th loss of the season while Angelo Zol turned aside 25 of the 28 thrown his way as he collected his 9th win of the campaign.
The Saints wrap up their three-game road trip in the Interior of BC with an evening contest against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Sunday at Rogers Rink. Puck drop is slated for 5:00 PM MST with the game being broadcasted live on the Saints Radio Network as well as streamed on FloHockey.
