The West Kelowna Warriors are the Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup (WCC) champions.
The BCHL champion Warriors beat the AJHL best Brooks Bandits 6-0 at Affinity Place on Saturday evening in the WCC one-versus-two game to win the Cup and earn the first of two available berths to the national junior A championship RBC Cup, which will be held in Lloydminster May 14-22.
“It’s a lot of momentum,” said Warriors captain Kyle Marino. “It gives that group confidence that we can beat a Brooks. We can show up against anybody. I think obviously a much deserved break for us tomorrow would be real nice and we just have to keep going and playing hard.”
The Warriors (3-1 in WCC round-robin play) jumped out to a quick start against the Bandits (4-0) peppering Brooks goalie Garret Hughson with shots early on. Warriors forward Bryan Basilico put his team on the board first by picking up a pass in the slot and firing an attempt five-hole before grabbing his own rebound and popping it over a sprawled Hughson.
“They got a lucky one to start,” said Bandits head coach and general manager Ryan Papaioannou. “They got some bounces. I don’t think we played badly off the start. I think the game obviously trended that way as it went on, but I don’t think it was a bad start.”
West Kelowna made it 2-0 four minutes later when defenceman Nicholas Rutigliano slapped home a shot from the point. Warriors forward Garrett Forster got in on the action at the 15:22 mark of the first period by throwing a puck at the Bandits’ net from the boards at the bottom of the circle where it was stopped by Hughson only to have the rebound deflect off his defenceman and into the net.
“We just wanted to keep things simple tonight and let our goalie see all the shots, get away the second ones and I think that was probably the best thing tonight,” said Ryan Ferster, head coach and general manager of the Warriors. “They didn’t get a lot of second and third opportunities. They are a team that obviously likes to go to the net. We’ve seen that in Game 1 how that worked out for us. We wanted to make sure we cleared second and third chances and made sure they didn’t get to the paint.”
In a physical second period that saw both teams leave everything on the ice, the Warriors managed to get their fourth goal with Kyle Marino wiring a shot short side from the bottom of the circle while on the power play.
A march to the penalty box marked the Bandits’ downfall in the third period. The team took seven minors, one double-minor and three 10-minute misconducts in the frame.
“There are three parties in the hockey game,” said Papaioannou. “There is West Kelowna. You credit them. They played well. There is Brooks. Don’t deserve a lot of credit, didn’t do enough to win. And there is a third unnamed party, who was worse than Brooks. So at the end of the day we come back tomorrow (against the Portage Terriers in the second RBC Cup qualifying game), we win and nobody cares if we’re the Western Canada Cup champions or the second berth.”
The Warriors’ Kylar Hope scored their fifth goal on a wraparound 9:01 into the third period, before Jared Marino banged home a rebound from the top of the crease on the man advantage with about eight minutes remaining to give West Kelowna the six-goal win.
“They might get the day off tomorrow,” said Ferster, while joking about Marino’s comment. “We’ll see.”
