West Kelowna Warriors hit for seven in rout of the Vernon Vipers

Photo: Wayne Moore

Tyler Grahme scores the first of his three goals in a 7-3 win Saturday

The West Kelowna Warriors hit for a season-high seven goals Saturday night in a 7-3 rout of the visiting Vernon Vipers Saturday night before nearly 1,000 fans at Royal LePage Place.

Just 24 hours after they were embarrassed on home ice, the Warriors came out a different team against the Vipers. They crashed the net and forechecked hard for much of the night and it paid off, especially early.

The Warriors, who were shutout Friday, didn’t need much time to ensure that would not be the case on this night.

Elias Callgren, playing his best hockey of the season, won a battle for the puck behind the Vernon net, threw it in front and, during the ensuing scramble, batted the puck out of mid air behind starter Jari Kykkanen.

Three minutes later on a Warriors power play, Tyler Grahme crashed the net and banged home a loose puck for the first of his three on the evening. Grahame then set up Ian Alonso for his seventh and the Warriors were off and running.

“The last week we were doing rebound plays, rebound passes, shots, everything and then we came out last night and we didn’t do that,” said head coach Simon Ferguson.

“I was happy to see we were able to do that tonight.”

Grahame shorthanded on the receiving end of a two-on-one with Jackson Kyrkostas and Sam LeDrew with a backdoor one-timer on a Warriors power play made it 5-2 after 40.

Caden Kemkaran-Humble with a strange goal as the puck hit the end glass, ricocheted in front and deflected past Kykkanen and Grahme off the rush late in the game rounded out the scoring.

By and large, head coach Simon Ferguson was pleased with the bounce-back effort.

“I still thought there were times where some guys still wanted to do their own thing where the two points weren’t all that mattered and we hit that pretty hard,” said Ferguson.

“For the most part we bought in the right way, played our game and that’s what we need to do every night.”

The Warriors were also energized with the return of all-star defenceman Axel Lofgren, who missed the last 10 games with a lower body injury, especially on the power play that connected on two of three chances.

“Absolutely, finally getting our power play going, that was nice to finally see.

“But it comes to shooting and simple plays and he’s an elite player…an elite player on the power play and just rounding out his game so he can take the next step.”

Edouard Gauthier, making his first start after joining the team after Christmas, earned his first BCHL victory turning away 33 shots.

He was real good, especially early in the third when the Vipers came at the Warriors trying to cut into the three-goal deficit.

“I thought he was really good. He stepped up and wanted to show us he deserves more, so now we’ve got a little battle here which is great for us.”

The Warriors did lose the services of defenceman Philip Mønnich Hagen who suffered a gash to the back of his head after being hit hard into the board in the first period.

The Warriors thought the play deserved a boarding penalty, however, the officials reviewed the play and determined the hit did not deserve a penalty.

The win leaves the Warriors two points up on Okotoks in the battle for seventh and eighth in the Interior Conference.

The Warriors are off now until Saturday when they host the Blackfalds Bulldogs.