Warriors fall to Backs

Photo: Wayne Moore

Two things stood out in the West Kelowna Warriors 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks Saturday at Royal LePaqe Place.

A lacklustre to poor second period and the team's need for a sniper, a true, dependable goal scorer.

After coming out fast in the opening period Saturday, the Warriors fell back in the second, and the Silverbacks made them pay.

Already leading 1-0, on a first period goal from Justin Wilson, Salmon Arm took advantage of a pair of turnovers in the middle period to grab a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes.

Nick Unruh tapped home a perfect feed after the Warriors were guilty of coughing the puck up in the offensive zone.

Then, an arrant clearing attempt late in the period led to Wilson's second of the night, as be banged home a rebound of a point shot.

"We have a team that comes in here hungry, trying to move up in the standings, and outworked us," said head coach Rylan Ferster.

"We took the second period off, then we tried to play catch up in the third. It's unfortunate, but full marks to them, they played hard for 60 minutes."

The Warriors had chances to climb back in the game in each period, but stellar goaltending from Kyle Dumba kept the Warriors at bay until later in the game.

Michael Lombardi had two glorious chances in the first and newly acquired Ryan Steele was robbed on a rebound early in the second. Lombardi then hit the cross bar on the second of three straight power plays the Warriors were awarded in the third.

They failed to capitalize on any of those.

Finally, moments after a power play expired, Parm Dhaliwal banged home a rebound from in close to get the Warriors on the board with just under six minutes to play.

It was Dhaliwal's ninth of the season and third in two nights.

Just over a minute later, Jared Marino snuck one in on the short side with a wrist shot from the left circle off the rush to get the Warriors within one.

Cole Demers made his biggest stop of the night moments later when he stoned Brandon Whistle on a penalty shot to give the Warriors one last chance to force overtime.

They pulled Demers with just over two minutes left and had a couple of looks, but Lombardi';s high sticking penalty with a minute to go foiled the six-on-five advantage.

The Warriors had one last chance with a faceoff in Salmon Arm territory in the final second, but Kyle Marino's desperation shot as the clock ticked down was blocked and went harmlessly into the corner.

The Warriors are back in action Tuesday when the Coquitlam Express come to town. It's the second of a four game homestand for the Warriors.