The West 琉璃神社 Warriors will try to even their best-of-seven, opening-round BCHL playoff series at one game apiece tonight at Royal LePage Place after dropping opening the opener 6-5 to the Merritt Centennial Friday night.
On a night when the team鈥檚 fans learned the Warriors, defending national junior A hockey champions, after local investors were found to support the team, the home side got out to a slow start but bounced back in the second period after trailing at the first intermission 2-1.
The Centennials jumped out to a two-goal lead early on markers by Zack Risteau at 5:57 and Tyler Ward at the 7:22 mark of the 1st period. Jake Harrison responded for the Warriors just before the break.
The announcement of the team鈥檚 future鈥攃heered loudly by the announced crowd of 1,124鈥� seemed to buoy the Warriors, who, despite going 3-1 down early in the second on another goal by Risteau, fought back with two goals to tie it up at three by the end of the second period.
Just 55 seconds after Risteau鈥檚 goal, the Warriors Chase Stevenson scored as s a Michael Ryan point shot hit Stevenson in the skates before he swept the puck past Merritt goalie Jacob Berger to cut the lead to 3-2.
The Warriors tying goal came at the at the 6:58 mark when Connor Sodergren spotted an open Quin Foreman on the goal line, fed him a pass that Foreman snapped in.
But the Warriors could not sustain the momentum in third. Despite going up a goal on by Michael Ryan early in the third to make it 4-3, Merritt rattled off two more goals, just under 90 seconds apart, when Tyler Ward beat Warriors goalie Cole Demers to tie the game at 4-4 and then Mike Faulkner found his own rebound to make it 5-4 for Merritt.
The Centennials went up 6-4 less than a minute later, when Brett Jewell鈥檚 shot deflected off of a Warriors stick in front of Demers on the power play and went in.
A flurry of activity around the Merritt net int he last minutes produced the Warriors final goal by Quinn Freeman but the home team could not find the equalizer as time expired.
Demers, who made his first BCHL playoff start for the Warriors, was the busier of the two goalies with 33 saves on 39 shots. But it was his counterpart in the Merritt net, Berger, also making his first career BCHL playoff start, who picked up the win with 20 saves on 25 shots.
The two team will play again, tonight, at Royal Lepage Place in West 琉璃神社, before the series shift to Merritt. Puck drop will be 7 p.m.
