Silver-medal winners at the BC Hockey peewee tier 2 provincial championship last season, the West Kelowna Warriors are serving notice they’re determined to return for an upgrade in 2018.
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For a second straight weekend, the Warriors dominated the opposition en route to a winning a tournament title, their latest triumph coming at the annual Kelowna Minor Hockey Association event at the Rutland Arena.
The Warriors skated to five convincing wins to claim gold, capping the perfect weekend by doubling the host Kelowna Rockets 8-4 on Sunday at Rutland West.
A hat-trick performances by Malachi Freh and Connor Seeley led the explosive West Kelowna offence that also included goals by Rayden Parkes and Lynden Lakovic.
Reece Ryan replied with a pair of goals for the second-place Rockets while Parker MacDonald and Parker Brbot each scored once in a losing cause.
The Warriors had reached the final by defeating Salmon Arm 9-4 in one semi earlier on Sunday and the Rockets advanced with a 4-3 win over Penticton. Both teams had gone undefeated in three round-robin matchups in their respective pool.
With seven players returning from the lineup that claimed silver last spring, the Warriors appear poised to take a serious run at a coveted provincial banner.
Head coach Alex Hill said the WK program is predicated and built around experiencing success in the playoffs.
“That is not always measured just simply by wins and losses, but how the players and the team develop during the season,” said Hill. “With roughly half of the players back from last year’s team, there is a sense that we need to go back and complete the job.”
Hill said that much like last year’s team, the current Warriors are a very skilled, hard-working and respectful group of young athletes.
“I’m very proud of what they have accomplished to date and the direction they’re heading,” he added. “Inevitably there are going to be some rough patches, but that in itself is part of the learning and developmental process.”
Coming off a gold-medal win at their own tournament a week earlier,the Warriors opened the Kelowna event with round-robin wins over Williams Lake (12-2), Portland Winterhawks (13-0) and the Penticton Vees (10-2) before going on to a sweep of their two playoff encounters.
Over the two weekends of tournament play, the Warriors have outscored their opponents 96-23.
While the numbers are remarkable, Hill says he’s more impressed with how quickly the group has come together.
“They’ve played selfless hockey — putting their teammates before themselves. This is always the modus operandi of the program, but some teams take much longer to figure that out than others.”
In preparation for what they are hoping will be a return trip to the BC Hockey provincial tournament — at the North Shore Winter Club in March — the Warriors will play in invitational tournaments in Penticton, Abbotsford and Regina, complementing regular season play in the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association.
Meanwhile, the young team will begin shortly its annual Christmas Benevolent Campaign to volunteer time or raise funds in an effort to give back to the community.
As for the host Rockets, they gave every indication they won’t be conceding a OMAHA peewee tier 2 title to anyone.
Head coach, Kent Fearns, said his team might have run out of gas against the Warriors after the hard-fought win over Penticton in their semifinal.
“We have a very hard-working team and to be successful, we have to use that strength to frustrate our opponents,” he said. “It was very evident against Penticton — our best game of the season so far.
“But against West Kelowna — one of the best teams in the province — we needed to have our best stuff to compete, but we didn’t quite have it in the final.”
Fearns added that overall his team is getting better every week.
“And I am really looking forward to see what this team can accomplish,” he said.
Opening with a 6-4 win over Salmon Arm, led by Reece Ryan’s two-goal effort, the Rockets went on to breeze by Moses Lake, with Andrew Isa scoring four goals to go along with hat-trick efforts by Brbot and Ryan. They clinched first place in their pool with a 9-3 decision over Kamloops in which Seth Tansem, Kaslo Ferner and Brbot each scored twice.
In their semifinal victory over Penticton, the Rockets scored four unanswered goals in the second period and held on for the 4-3 win. Isa tallied twice for Kelowna while singles came from Brbot and Ryan.
Rounding out the Rockets lineup, also coached by Scott Richardson, Jeff Dale and David Sabey, are Jonah Fearns, Bryson Carlyle, Ryan Richardson, Kyle Dale, Cooper Humphreys, Aidan Csuka, Alex Bronswyk, Rylan Konecsni, Fraser Davis and Dylan Adams.
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