The BCHL Fred Page Cup champion West Kelowna Warriors shut out the Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup (WCC) host CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins 3-0 at Affinity Place on Saturday evening.
Warriors goaltender Matthew Greenfield said the guys in front of him were unbelievable blocking shots and keeping the opposition to the outside. He said despite trailing 9-2 in man-advantage opportunities in the game, the guys did their job pinning the Bruins out which made his life a lot easier.
The Bruins came out strong early in the first period, but a Warriors’ penalty kill seven-and-a-half minutes in showcased the rust that the home side was facing. The Warriors’ Kylar Hope registered the two best chances on the kill, but timely saves from Bruins netminder Daniel Wapple, including a pad stack on a shot in close from Hope while standing all alone at the top of the crease, kept the score at zeroes.
“Before the game started you could tell…everyone was nervous,” said Bruins centre Owen LaClare, whose team had waited 34 days to begin this tournament after being eliminated by the Nipawin Hawks in the SJHL quarter-finals. “Especially a tournament like this I think it would be weird if you didn’t have a little bit of nerves, but getting this one under our belt and looking forward to (Portage) I think the nerves mostly will be all out of us.”
Warriors forward Reed Gunville opened the scoring 4:07 into the second period when he picked up the puck in the slot and slid it low corner glove side on Wapple. Brett Mennear made it 2-0 a little over a minute later on a rebound from the top of the crease off a Nicholas Rutigliano point shot.
“The first one was just a bad play,” said Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood. “Their guy called for the pass, our guy gave it to him and he put it in the net no questions asked. The next one was again that net-front play has got to be better. They found a way to get a puck through from the top and our D-man lost a stick and it was a tap in. The goalie did his share. We got to make sure we’re picking up sticks at the net front.”
Mennear got his second of the game 9:50 into the third period on a deflection off a Scott Allan point shot. The Bruins applied pressure to try and even up the score late on two man-advantage opportunities, but could not bulge the twine.
“West Kelowna, they just put up such a passive penalty kill,” said Lewgood. “They sit back, they fill lanes very well and they block shots. Even with the adjustments we made they were able to block a lot of shots.
“The bottom line for me is that we focus on our game plan. We made some adjustments for every team just as we always do, just slight adjustments, little tweaks here and there, but our plan is our plan. Our team’s makeup is our team’s makeup and West Kelowna had a couple things we wanted to tweak against and the guys did a pretty good job of buying into that. It just comes down to banging in rebounds and a couple of little things (like) finishing on our opportunities.”
