Felix Caron scored twice as part of a three-point night to help the West Kelowna Warriors to a 4-3 victory over the Cranbrook Bucks on Saturday night at Western Financial Place.
After being named the first star in the BC Hockey League last week, Felix Caron continued his torrid pace to start the season and six minutes into the contest gave the Warriors the lead on their first shot of the game and the first of his two-goal opening period.
Caron took a feed from Brennan Nelson at the right point as he fed a puck to the front of the goal where Caron drove to the net and redirected the puck past the glove side of Bucks goaltender Danick Leroux for his 8th goal of the season and at the 6:00 mark pushed the Warriors to a 1-0 lead.
Caron returned the favour moments later at the 12:07 mark and helped Nelson collect his 4th goal of the season for a 2-0 advantage. Dylan Brooks slid a pass to Caron at the left point for a one-time shot that sizzled to the net before being redirected at the front of the goal by Nelson and the Captain vaulted the Warriors ahead by a two-goal margin.
A late power play aided the Warriors to a three-goal lead before the period was out as Caron buried his second of the game on a nice give-and-go play with Michael Salandra. Salandra gave a pass for Caron on the left boards before getting a pass back below the goal line and fed Caron with a feed in the left face-off circle that Caron buried through the legs of Leroux for his 9th of the season and a 3-0 lead with 29 seconds remaining in the opening period.
Despite a pair of power play chances in the middle frame, it was the Bucks who made comeback attempt in the 2nd period and came off of a penalty kill before Noah Urness cut into the Warriors lead. Following a penalty, Urness came out of the penalty box and took a Jaxon Fuder stretch pass and moved down the left side before ripping a shot over the glove shoulder of Matthew DellaRusso in the Warriors net at the 13:58 mark of the period to cut the Warriors advantage to 3-1.
Cranbrook got within a marker before the period was out with Luke Pfoh giving the Bucks extra life heading into the break with just 8 seconds remaining in the period. Urness took a shot from the slot that DellaRusso got a right pad on before Pfoh batted the puck over the right shoulder of the Warriors goaltender and behind him to make it a 3-2 game heading into the 3rd period.
A power play helped Cranbrook to level the score for the first time in the game since 0-0 with Loke Sòdergren scoring from the point. Zoin Green worked the puck back to the blue line where Södergren push a shot through traffic and past the glove hand of DellaRusso at the 5:42 mark of the final period to tie the game at 3-3.
It didn’t take long, however, for the Warriors to find their way back in the lead as 16 seconds after the Bucks tied it, Jackson Kyrkostas scored one of the more unique goals of the season to give the Warriors a lead once more at 4-3.
Kyrkostas raced into the offensive zone and cut to the middle of the ice just inside the blue line before tripping over himself at the top of the right face-off circle but still got his shot away to the net as it slipped off the stick of Bucks goaltender Carter Capton, who came on after the opening period, and over the glove side for his 6th goal of the season and at the 6:00 mark gave the Warriors a one-goal edge at 4-3.
DellaRusso stood strong in the Warriors net down the stretch of the game and earned a win on his 19th birthday, picking up his 3rd win of the season with 26 saves on 29 shots while Danick Leroux made 4 saves on 7 shots in the opening period before being lifted in favour of Carter Capton, who made 17 saves on 18 shots in relief in his 6th loss of the season.