West Kelowna drop Bucks 5-2 in chippy holiday matinee

Warriors win physical battle

Blake Burke wanted to show his coaches he deserves to be in the West Kelowna Warriors lineup.

Listed as a game-time decision, Burke was inserted for Monday’s Family Day matinee when fellow forward Jace Rask was unable to go.

Turned out to be head coach Simon Ferguson’s best move of the game.

The Trunbull, CT. native acquired after the Christmas break, scored twice including the game winner and picked up an assist in the Warriors 5-2 win over the Cranbrook Bucks.

“That’s how you send a message that I’m going to be in this lineup and don’t take my spot,” said Ferguson.

“We have good players that can play on any line up and down the lineup, and sometimes you have to make hard decisions and unfortunately he was on the hard decision list today and came out and showed he doesn’t want that to happen anymore.

Burke, Max Dinneen and Garrett Thom were going all night.

Captain Liam Nilsson, Natan Ethier on a power play and Olivier Chan into the empty net also scored for the Warriors.

Dinneen chipped in with three assists.

The Warriors came out flying in the first, building up a 3-0 lead. Nilsson got things going when a backdoor pass from Burke hit a stick and deflected to Nilsson in the slot.

Then Burke went to work, making it 2-0 on a backhand from the edge of the crease the, using Dinneen as a decoy, ripped a shot past Jason Tremblay from the right circle on a two-on-one.

The Bucks took over in the second, outshooting the Warriors 10-0 over the first 12 minutes and cutting the deficit to one.

But, the Warriors following a Bucks penalty, outshot Cranbrook 10-0 the rest of the way, and carried that into the third.

Ethier with his team-leading 26th early in the third gave the Warriors some breathing room before Chan sealed it late.

Aside from a 10 minute span in the second the Warriors were the superior team Monday afternoon in a game filled with hard hits and extra curricular activity after the whistle.

“That’s what we see from them every time. They try and slow us down and get greasy on us and let us fall into the trap.

“I thought we did mostly a good job of staying away from it but fell into it a little bit.

“We need to be better than that.”

The Warriors did lose the services of centre Noah Garthe to a lower body injury in the second period.

The extent of the injury is not known.

The Warriors won six of the seven games over the course of the regular season, but may not be done with their Kootenay rival.

Just three points separate the Bucks and Vernon Vipers in the battle for the final playoff spot in the Interior West. The winner of that battle will almost assuredly play the Warriors in the opening round of the playoffs.

The Warriors have a 16 point cushion on the Trail Smoke Eaters in the division and sit just a point behind Cowichan in the battle for the overall league lead.

West Kelowna holds two games in hand.

The Warriors are off until the weekend. They’ll travel to Salmon Arm Friday before hosting Sherwood Park on Faith Night and Brendan Ritchie night Saturday.