Felix Trudeau scored twice leading West Kelowna past Vernon 5-4 Friday

Photo: Wayne Moore

The West Kelowna Warriors erased a two-goal deficit with five unanswered goals, then held on to edge the Vernon Vipers 5-4 in BCHL pre season action Friday at Royal LePage Place.

Down a pair 12 minutes into the game, the Warriors began clawing their way back, thanks in large part to a power play that had struck just once in three previous outings.

The power play, which had a hard time setting up in its first two opportunities finally got untracked late in the period.

Felix Trudeau scored his first of two when his wrist shot from the right circle beat Ethan David cleanly to the far corner.

But, it was a four-minute power play, awarded when Griffen Barr was sent off for a slew foot at the end of the first that turned the tide.

Trudeau tied it 28 seconds into the second on a backdoor one timer, then 90 seconds later, Tyler Cristall gave the Warriors their first lead following a great solo effort by Carter Schmidt.

Schmidt recovered his own deflected pass, barged his way toward the net and fed a perfect pass to Cristall who beat David through a crowd.

It was the Warriors third straight power play marker.

"We've been working on it a lot, getting the right guys in the right spots, and get them shooting. I liked the way it looked for sure," said head coach Simon Ferguson.

John Evans, with his first of the pre season late in the second and Marcus Joughin with his first off the rush early in the third allowed the Warriors to build a comfortable 5-2 lead.

But, it turns out, they would need all of them.

Jack Glen just seconds after Joughin's goal on a two-on-one, and Cam MacDonald with a deflection on a power play midway through the third pulled the Vipers to within a goal.

The Warriors got a scare on the ensuing faceoff when Evens took a high stick in the face but, after going to the dressing room for several minutes, did return for the final few moments.

Rookie Justin Katz closed the door the rest of the way to preserve his first win in the BC Hockey League.

Katz turned away 17 shots while David faced 28 in the Vernon net.

The win improves the Warriors pre season record to 3-1, while the Vipers fell to 0-3-2-0.

The two teams close out the exhibition season Saturday night at Kal Tire Place in Vernon.