The West Kelowna Warriors are right back in action with a showdown with the Coquitlam Express to close out their 2016 Bauer BCHL Showcase this afternoon.
The Warriors are just 15 hours removed from a 5-2 victory over the Chilliwack Chiefs, a game in which the Warriors played a strong complete effort. Quin Foreman tallied a hat trick for West Kelowna while Michael Ryan and Connor Sodergren added goals in the Warriors second consecutive victory with Xavier Burghardt making 31 saves on 33 shots for his 2nd BCHL win.
Shane Farkas will start his 3rd game of the season today while Marshall Wilton and Damien Bentz will draw out of the Warriors lineup.
The Warriors and Express both won as the visiting team in each other’s building’s last season with Coquitlam winning 3-2 in West Kelowna in October while the Warriors won a 3-2 double OT game in Coquitlam in February.
The Express return 11 players from last year’s team including captain Luca Leone, Mitch Newsome, Alex Ambrosio, Blake Heyward, Keegan Jones, Owen Stout, Cameron Bertsch, Jake Brien, Noah Turanski and goaltender Lawson Fenton.
Coquitlam started the season wildly with n 8-7 win in Surrey against the Eagles followed by a 8-1 loss in Langley the next night against the Rivermen. The Express dropped their third game of the season by a 4-1 score against the Vernon Vipers before handing the Salmon Arm Silverbacks a 3-1 loss at the Shaw Centre.
Owen Stout paces the team in scoring with 9 points in just 4 points for the West Vancouver native while Leone (3-2-5) and Heyward (1-3-4) round out the top 3 in scoring for the Express, who have scored an impressive 13 goals in four games but have also surrendered 20.