Local Community Advertising
Capped by Jonathan Desbiens’ record-setting 42nd goal of the season, the West Kelowna Warriors defeated the Vernon Vipers for a second straight day in B.C. Hockey League action in Vernon.
Desbiens scored into an empty net with 16 seconds remaining to break the Warriors’ club record of 41 set by Winfield's Trevor Bailey in 2010. It put the lid on Wednesday’s 6-4 victory that came on the heels of a 4-1 win in West Kelowna on Tuesday. Both games started at 11 a.m., allowing school students to attend and take part in the teams’ anti-bullying awareness campaign.
For Desbiens, a Montreal native in his second season with the Warriors, Wednesday’s goal was his 20th in the 24 games in the new year. The Bentley University-bound centre added two assists to increase his team lead in points. He now has 79 and is fourth overall in the BCHL, while sitting six points back of Bailey’s single-season club record of 85.
Five other Warriors — Kylar Hope, Kristian Blumenschein, Connor Sodergren, Garrett Forster and Nicholas Rutigliano — shared in the Warriors’ scoring, while Keelan Williams was the winning goaltender, stopping 32 of 36 Vernon shots.
Ben Butcher, Brett Stapley, Odeen Tufto and Callum Volpe replied for Vernon, whose goaltender, Andrew Shortridge, faced 43 shots in a losing cause.
The two teams traded a goal apiece in the first period, but the Warriors broke things open with three unanswered markers in the second.
West Kelowna looked to have the game well under control when Rutigliano scored while short-handed with 10 minute remaining in the game. But the Vipers kept on coming, scoring twice in 58 seconds in the final two minutes to get to within one.
Desbiens’ empty-netter ended the threat.
It was the Warriors’ 36th win of the season and put them nine points up on the third-place Salmon Arm Silverbacks in the Interior Division. The Silverbacks still have five games remaining, while the Warriors have just two. A second-place finish will mean home-ice advantage in the first round of the BCHL playoffs.
Next up for the Warriors is another meeting with the Vipers on Friday at Royal LePage Place beginning at 7 p.m. West Kelowna will close out the regular season with a game on Feb. 26 against Salmon Arm at Royal LePage.
Local Community Advertising