Warriors salvage a point

Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet

Warriors captain Kyle Marino tries to avoid a collision with Coquitlam netminder Lawson Fenton during the second period of Tuesday's 3-2 overtime loss.

Twenty minutes of good hockey was good enough for just a single point.

The West Kelowna Warriors held a 2-1 lead after a dominating second period but were unable to bring it home, falling 3-2 in overtime to the visiting Coquitlam Express Tuesday at Royal LePage Place.

Charlie Barrow scored his second of the night just 35 seconds into the first overtime period to give the Express the victory. Barrow took a pass from behind the net and roofed a wrist shot high to the short side from the right circle.

Barrow also knotted the equalizer midway through the third when his slap shot from nearly the same spot found its way into the far corner past Stephen Heslop.

"We have a 2-1 lead lead and have a really good second period and don't have a very good first period and don't have a good third period," said Warriors head coach Rylan Ferster.

"I don't know if we expect we are going play 20 minutes and win a hockey game. Not good, not good."

Coquitlam opened the scoring with the only goal of the opening period before the Warriors got untracked in the second.

They outshot the Express 19-5 in the middle frame and scored the only two goals of the period.

Garrett Forster evened the score at 1-1 with his third of the season. Forster dangled inside the Express zone and, without warning, sent a wrist shot high to the short side from the left dot.

Quin Foreman's first in the BCHL on a West Kelowna power-play six minutes later put the Warriors up a goal.Foreman grabbed a rebound and ticked the puck into a wide open net.

Earlier in the period Paul Lovsin had a glorious chance to hit the scoreboard. He took a pass in close on a nifty give-and-go, but somehow Tyger Howat was able to slide his left pad over to stop the shot on the goal line.

Howat didn't finish the game, leaving seconds after Foreman's go-ahead goal with what appeared to be a left leg injury.

Lawson Fenton went the rest of the way, stopping all 17 shots he faced, giving his team a chance to win.

"I didn't think our puck management was very good in the third period. We were on the wrong side of pucks or we wanted to make fancy plays," said Ferster.

"Our division is so good that you just can't afford to have these nights. If you play 60 minutes tonight and lose 3-2 in overtime, you're OK."

The Warriors went the final period with just four defencemen after Jake Harrison was knocked out of the game after taking a high elbow to the head from Express forward Jack Surowiec.

Fellow defenceman Rylan Yaremko came to his defence and received 27 minutes in penalties including a pair of misconducts. Surowiec also was sent to the showers following the hit and fight.

Harrison got up after the hit but looked shaky heading to the  bench.

Ferster said he hadn't checked on Harrison immediately after the game, knowing only he would not finish the game.

His status for weekend games in Penticton Friday and at home to Powell River Saturday is not known.

The single point gives the Warriors points in four of their last five games to sit a point in back of second place Salmon Arm in the Interior Division.