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The West Kelowna Warriors fought most of the season for the home-ice advantage in the first round of the B.C. Hockey League playoffs.
And while they were successful in reaching the goal with a second-place finish in the Interior Division, a 6-5 overtime loss to the third-place Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Friday negated the effort.
Chase Zieky scored at 10:53 of the first OT period at Royal LePage Place and lifted the Silverbacks a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven division semifinal. The Warriors must now win a game in Salmon Arm if they hope to move on in the BCHL post season.
As they did to catch the Silverbacks late in the regular season standings, the Warriors battled from behind during most of Friday’s opening playoff game as Salmon Arm held leads of 2-0, 4-3 and 5-4 before Quin Foreman of West Kelowna sent the game into an extra frame with the Warriors’ fifth goal midway through the third.
Connor Sodergren, Liam Blackburn, Bryan Basilico and Kylar Hope were the other West Kelowna marksmen, while Ross Heidt, Marcus Mitchell, Nick Hutchison, Kodi Schwarz and Joshua Laframboise replied for the Silverbacks.
Matthew Greenfield took the loss in goal, giving up the Salmon Arm goals on 47 shots. Angus Redmond was the winning goaltender, stopping 39 of 44 shots in his 70:73 of work.
The second game of the series goes on Saturday at Royal LePage Place beginning at 7 p.m., while the two teams will play in Salmon Arm on Monday and Tuesday.
The winner of the series will most likely have the formidable task in the division final of playing the Penticton Vees, runaway first-overall finishers in the BCHL.
The Vees, with a gaudy 50-7-0-1 record for 101 points, opened their Interior Division semifinal series with the Vernon Vipers on Friday, defeating the visitors 6-3 and outshooting the Vipers 47-18.
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