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West Kelowna and Salmon Arm set to battle in Interior Conference semis

Warriors ready for Round 2

It may be a quicker turnaround than they would like but regardless, the West Kelowna Warriors will be ready for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks when their Interior Conference semi-final series opens up Friday at Royal LePage Place.

The Warriors are fresh off that dramatic game seven win over the Cranbrook Bucks Tuesday night while the Silverbacks have been off since last Saturday when they finished off the Merritt Centennials in six.

The Warriors and Silverbacks met six times during the regular season with the Warriors winning five of those, including a pair of shutouts with two going to a shootout.

Through a quirk in the schedule, four of the six regular season meetings were at RLP.

Rorke Applebee, currently out with a lower body injury started all six games with Matthew DellaRusso only seeing action during an Oct. 6 7-3 defeat. He allowed two goals after coming in midway through the second.

Eli Pulver, who is expected to get the lions share of the work during this series saw action in four of the six games amassing a record of 1-2-0-1 while allowing 14 goals.

Felix Caron led the Warriors offensively with three goals and four assists while Cole Cooksey was the Silverbacks lead with three goals and five points.

One player who didn't see any action during the regular season series is 16-year-old forward Dylan Krayer who came to the team near the end of the season.

He got into two regular season games and has played all seven in the post season. With injury, suspension and illness, Krayer has played a key role and has shown flashes of what fans can expect next season and beyond.

"It's been great, a great group of guys to have on my side. They welcomed me in and made me feel comfortable right away," said Krayer after he picked up a goal and an assist in the series clinching win over Cranbrook Tuesday.

"I had an idea I would be around. I didn't know if I was going to play in the playoffs. I just wanted to come in, work hard, get used to everything and hope everything would work out."

There is no status update on Applebee's availability for the series. Cal Hughes missed the last two games of the Bucks series with an illness and his status for game one is also unknown.

The opening two games of the best-of-seven series are scheduled for Royal LePage Place Friday and Saturday before moving north to Salmon Arm for games three and four next Tuesday and Wednesday.



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