The West Kelowna Warriors scored a season-high eight goals in a dominant 8-2 victory over the Surrey Eagles on Tuesday night in BCHL action at Royal LePage Place.
Ryan Steele scored twice and Chase Dubois, Michael Lombardi and Michael Ryan each had three points as the Warriors ended a two-game slide.
The 1st period was a dominant one for the Warriors as they struck first blood at the 4:26 mark stemming off of a pass back to the front of the goal. Chase Dubois centered a pass for Parm Dhaliwal in the slot and the Warriors forward shot the puck past Eagles netminder Mario Cavaliere on the glove side for his 13th goal of the season and a 1-0 Warriors lead.
West Kelowna extended the lead to 2-0 at the 8:43 mark off the opening period on a gorgeous tally by Michael Lombardi. Lombardi turned quickly as he evaded away from a Surrey defender and wrapped the puck around on the glove side of Cavaliere for his 15th goal of the season and a 2-0 Warriors advantage.
The Warriors capped off the 1st period scoring with a marker at the 17:24 mark of the frame as Michael Ryan led the charge into the Surrey end of the ice. Ryan got to about the left-wing half boards and found a streaking Chase Stevenson down the right-wing as he snapped a shot in stride past the blocker side of Cavaliere to give the Warriors a 3-0 lead to round end the 1st period.
It was a strong opening 20 minutes for the Warriors with three different goal scorers and 19 total shots on goal with Cavaliere turning aside 16 of them. Warriors goaltender Nik Amundrud stopped all 9 shots he faced in the opening frame to keep the Warriors lead at three.
The 2nd period started on the same note for the Warriors as they added on their fourth goal of the game at the 3:10 mark with Chase Dubois scoring his 18th goal of the season. Lombardi teed up a one-timer for Dubois in the left-wing face-off circle and drilled a shot into blocker corner for a 4-0 Warriors lead.
Ryan Steele added to the Warriors lead with a goal coming at the 8:58 mark of the 2nd period to extend the Warriors lead further. Steele took a puck in the neutral zone and raced down the right-wing side around the Surrey defense before powering to the goal and slid the puck through the legs of Cavaliere for his 14th goal of the season and a 5-0 lead, seeing Daniel Davidson come on in relief of Cavaliere.
The Eagles responded with their first goal of the game at the 15:12 mark of the 2nd period of the game on the power play. Desi Burgart took a pass from behind the goal line, off the stick of Jeffrey Stewart, and outwaited Amundrud to the blocker side before getting the puck past him to make close the gap on the Warriors lead to 5-1.
It didn’t take long into the 3rd period for the Warriors to strike in the final period of play as Steele collected his second goal of the night just 1:03 into the 3rd period as he found a loose puck in the slot and put a backhand past Davidson on the glove side to extend the Warriors lead to 6-1 on the power play.
Jordan Todd gave the Warriors a 7-1 lead at the 7:41 mark of the 3rd frame as he tipped in a Lucas Cullen feed from the right wing while shorthanded for his 4th goal of the season before Max Bulawka gave the Warriors an 8-1 lead just moments later at the 8:25 mark after a bobble behind the Surrey net by Davidson allowing Bulawka to cap off a Bennett Norlin pass for his 5th goal of the season.
Surrey closed out the scoring in the game with a goal at the 10:35 mark of the period when Ryan Brushett spun and fired a shot in the right-wing face-off circle that bounced off of a defender and past Amundrud on the blocker side to make the final 8-2 in favour of the Warriors.
Nik Amundrud got the start in between the pipes where he made 22 saves on 24 shots for his 14th win of the season while Mario Cavaliere turned aside 23 of the 28 shots he faced in the game in his 4th loss of the season before being relieved by Daniel Davidson who made 11 saves on 14 shots against.
The Warriors (25-24-1-1) head out and begin a three-day road trip that sees them start in Duncan on Friday night to take on the Cowichan Valley Capitals (9-33-2-5).
twitter.com
