The West Kelowna Warriors booked their ticket to the Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup (WCC) first-versus-second game with a 4-1 win over the Melfort Mustangs at Affinity Place on Thursday afternoon.
The Warriors (3-1) will face the Brooks Bandits (4-0) in the one-vs-two game at Affinity Place on Saturday evening, while the Mustangs (1-3) will hit the ice against the Portage Terriers (2-1-1) in the three-vs-four game Saturday afternoon.
West Kelowna got off to a slow start against Melfort as they didn't register their first shot until five minutes into the game, but quickly picked up the pace after that outshooting the Mustangs 9-1 over the next seven minutes before Brett Mennear picked up the puck in the neutral zone, skated diagonally across the offensive zone and wired it top corner glove side on Mustangs goalie Evan Plotnik from the bottom of the circle..
Warriors forward Jonathan Desbiens made it 2-0 two-and-a-half minutes later off a won faceoff by Mennear in the offensive zone with the centre pushing the puck behind him where Desbiens picked it up, skated to the hash marks and fired a shot top corner blocker side. With 47 seconds to go in the opening frame, Kylar Hope got on the board off a nice play by Desbiens where he made a tape-to-tape pass in the offensive zone to Hope who skated in and backhanded the puck past Plotnick low stick side.
Bryan Basilico helped the Warriors to a four-goal lead 14:13 into the second period on a deflection at the top of the crease off a pass from the side wall by Tyler Anderson. The Mustangs' Ashton Clark had a great opportunity to bring his team to within three while on the penalty kill with a little over two minutes remaining in the second period when he stole the puck at his own blue line and broke in all alone on Warriors goaltender Keelan Williams only to be stymied on an attempt to go five hole.
Mustangs left wing Travis Mayan managed to break Williams' chance at the shutout with 11:44 left in the third period when he fired in a rebound from the slot off a Tristan Frei shot from the bottom of the circle.
