The West Kelowna Warriors used a two-goal performance from Parm Dhaliwal and a 29-save effort from Nik Amundrud to earn a big bounce back victory in a 2-1 win over the Trail Smoke Eaters on Friday night at Cominco Arena.
Game photos from tonight are provided by Randy Emery of the Trail Smoke Eaters:
3 THOUGHTS:
1) A COMPLETE EFFORT
Friday night was a good one for the Warriors as they picked up their 22nd victory of the season with a 2-1 win over the Trail Smoke Eaters at Cominco Arena in Trail to wrap up the two clubs season series. This was a complete effort from the offence picking up a pair of goals along with having multiple chances to score but Adam Marcoux stood in the way of that with 28 saves on the night and was the Smoke Eaters best player. This might have been one of the Warriors better defensive games in a while as the 5-man unit (with Tyler Jutting being a late scratch) all coming together to log some good quality minutes on the back end. In net, Nik Amundrud threw the monkey off his back in the team’s post game celebration after he looked like the Amundrud of old from the beginning of the season and posted 29 saves in his 11th victory of the season. Even with the Warriors having won three straight games just a couple of weeks ago, Amundrud hadn’t had one of those games where he felt on top of his game. Friday was a different story. “I felt good from the start,” Amundrud told me after the game, “The way the guys were playing in front of me, I knew it was going to be a good night.” Amundrud and his teammates came together for a complete 60-minute effort and earned every bit of the two points they got tonight. The first period was one of the best ones for this team in about a month as they scored the first goal of the game for the first time in 10 contests and overwhelmed the Smoke Eaters and took the words from Warriors head coach Rylan Ferster of “starting on time” literally with a great opening frame. They outshot the Smokies by a 14-8 margin (with Trail getting a majority of their first period shots from a late power play) and controlled most of the play. The two periods following saw the Smoke Eaters outshoot the Warriors in each of the frames but I didn’t think that Trail got a ton of quality scoring chances. The Warriors defense deserves a big round of applause for a stellar game and not allowing Trail’s top guns much in the way of chances at all. Kale Howarth, Ross Armour and Levi Glasman were really non-factors in the game tonight aside from a couple of rushes from Howarth in the contest but they didn’t have much a sniff at the Warriors goal. The offence also contributed with plenty of chances to make this score line much worse than 2-1 but Adam Marcoux was strong in the Trail goal but the Warriors forwards seemed to have a bit of an extra jump in their stride. After going two games without scoring, the Warriors only needed two goals to earn a win in Trail but it was all about the defense in the Warriors 22nd win of the season.
2) DOUBLE DOSE OF DHALIWAL
It only took Parm Dhaliwal one game to get back into game shape as he provided the only goal scoring for West Kelowna on the night in the 2-1 win. The first of Mr. Dhaliwal’s pair might have been the best shot I’ve seen him take as he picked the top corner on Marcoux’s blocker side off of a really nice passing play setup between Michael Ryan and Chase Dubois. Ryan passed at the midpoint for Dubois just above the right face-off circle before spotting Dhaliwal in the left dot where he rifled home his 7th goal of the season. At the almost the exact same point in the 2nd period, Dhaliwal tacked on his second of the game and the eventual game winning goal as he took a loose puck on the blocker side of Marcoux at the goal line and outwaited the Trail netminder before sliding the puck underneath of his left arm at the top of the crease for his second marker of the contest. The line of Dhaliwal along with Jared Marino and Chase Dubois had a good night I thought and applied some very good waves of pressure along with scoring the game’s only goals from the Warriors standpoint. Mike Lombardi, RJ Murphy and Ryan Steele were the Warriors best line on the night despite not finding the back of the net. All three are so good at protecting the puck below the goal line and making it hard on bigger defenders to bare down on them as they use their speed to get away while power through smaller defenders with their strong puck protecting skills and strength. Steele has fit in quite nicely on that line with Lombardi and Murphy and it’s showing as the line is usually one of the Warriors best on any given night. A double dose of Dhaliwal was all the Warriors needed on this night as the Surrey, BC native was back and in game shape on Friday, providing all the offence the Warriors needed.
3) MY TAKEAWAYS
My takeaways from the Warriors 2-1 victory in Trail over the Smoke Eaters on Friday night at Cominco Arena was that the Warriors needed that kind of an effort and they executed perfectly to earn a big two points on the road in a big divisional matchup. Michael Ryan stood out to me as the Warriors best defender on the night as he was all over and logged a ton of minutes and was rewarded (as well as a late birthday present) as the now 21-year-old was rock solid on the Warriors back end. All the defensemen in the Warriors lineup tonight played solid games on the back end, especially considering the Warriors were really down to four defensemen for the majority of the 2nd period with Stephen Kleysen and Jake Harrison missing a chunk of time being examined by Warriors athletic therapist Mike Bois. Both made recoveries and finished the game strong but I also liked the ruggedness of Garrett Ewert’s game tonight. I thought he played with a bit of aggression and helped shut down some of the Smoke Eaters top guns. Amundrud was very good in between the pipes for the Warriors and helped them along to a 22nd win on the season. All in all, a pretty successful trip to Trail and a very nice two points heading back to West Kelowna.
The Warriors are back in action on Saturday (which by the time I post this I guess it will already be Saturday) as they face-off against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks for just the 4th time this season and third in West Kelowna. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM.
The Warrior's Call 