The West Kelowna Warriors’ early-season BCHL slump continued Saturday night with a 6-3 home ice loss to the Penticton Vees.
The Warriors (5-8-0-1) haven’t won since Oct. 4 in Chilliwack and are 0-5-1 during the stretch.
The Interior-leading Vees pushed their record to 13-2-0.
The Vees jumped on top midway through the opening period as Ryley Risling was feed in front from behind the goal and beat Warriors netminder Shane Farkas to the glove side at 10:17 mark.
Just eight seconds later, Kenny Johnson completed a slick tic-tac-toe passing play on the backdoor to give Penticton a 2-0 advantage at the 10:29 mark of the firstt period before the Vees jumped ahead by a 3-0 score as Nicholas Jones found the back of the net on a centering feed from behind the goal.
The Jones goal completed a three-goal stretch in a span of just 44 seconds to put the visitors ahead by a 3-0 score.
Quin Foreman gave the crowd something to cheer about as the period finished out as he beat Vees goaltender Mat Robson with a wrist shot to the low glove side for his 9th goal of the season at the 18:41 mark of the opening frame.
The Vees retook their three-goal advantage at the 9:08 mark on another goal courtesy of the Vees captain Jones as he held on a 2-on-1 and scored on the low blocker side putting the Vees ahead by a 4-1 score.
West Kelowna got themselves back into the game at the 14:42 mark thanks the first of two second period goals from Connor Sodergren. After a nice play by Braiden Epp to strip the Vees forward of the puck, he found Sodergren below the face-off circle who beat Robson blocker high for his 6th goal of the season and a 4-2 Vees lead.
Sodergren was at it again late in the frame with just 58 seconds to play in the middle stanza as he found a loose puck after an initial shot from Tyler Jutting was blocked, the second year forward turned and fired, beating Robson through traffic to cut the Vees lead to 4-3 before the start of the 3rd period.
Robson came up large with a massive save early in the 3rd period, denying Quin Foreman on an in-tight chance before the Vees brought the puck back and just 2:10 into the final period, Ben Brar deflected in a goal to give the visitors a 5-3 advantage.
The Vees iced the game with a goal at the 6:23 mark of the 3rd frame as Ty Amonte found the back of the goal on a low blocker shot to put the Vees ahead by a 6-3 score and that’s how the game ended.
Shane Farkas turned aside 26 of 32 shots in the losing cause for the Warriors while Mat Robson made 20 saves on 23 shots for his league leading 10th victory for Penticton.
The Warriors (5-8-0-1) are back in action next weekend as they open up a four-game road trip when they hit Vancouver Island with a matchup against the Nanaimo Clippers (8-6-0-2).
