The West Kelowna Warriors couldn’t muster any offense against Ethan David and the Vernon Vipers, falling by a 7-0 score in Game #4 of the best-of-seven Interior Conference Quarter Finals on Wednesday night from Kal Tire Place as the series is tied once again at 2-2.
The 1st period was one to forget for the Warriors, who surrendered three goals in the opening 20 minutes of the game and it started just 1:09 into the 1st period with Connor Welsh giving the home side a 1-0 lead. Luke Ashton threw a puck on from the left point that was deflected in the left face-off circle by Welsh to give Vernon an early 1-0 edge.
The Vipers continued to get ahead in the opening period with two goals in six seconds, kickstarted by Dylan Compton’s first playoff goal coming on a delayed penalty to give the Vipers a 2-0 lead. Compton walked the goal line on the glove side of Warriors goaltender Cayden Hamming before putting a backhand shot off his pads and getting to the rebound to sent a shot over the blocker shoulder of the Warriors goaltender and make it a 2-0 game at the 7:34 mark of the opening frame.
Six seconds later, Anthony Cliché threw a puck in from the neutral zone off the ensuing face-off as Hamming went to play the puck behind his goal and had it bounce off of his stick right in front of the net where Hank Cleaves buried into the open net and gave Vernon a 3-0 lead just 7:40 into the game.
West Kelowna had their chances to get on the scoresheet in the opening period, including a pair of power plays where Vipers goaltender Ethan David was very strong on and made saves on all 10 shots he saw in the opening period as the Warriors looked to dig themselves out of a 1st period hole.
It was once again the Vipers who came out in the 2nd period and hit the ground running, taking a 4-0 lead just 11 seconds into the middle frame and it came from a familiar source in Lee Parks, who has scored in four consecutive games of the series. Parks moved his way into the right face-off circle and zipped a shot over the right shoulder of Hamming to give Vernon a 4-0 lead and end the night of the Warriors netminder as Angelo Zol came on in relief.
Just like in the 1st period, the Warriors had their opportunities to get on the scoreboard and chip away at the deficit but their power play, which came into the game running at 50% in the series, struggled to get anything going, including earning a 5-on-3 advantage for over a minute and a half but could not solve David as they continued to trail by four into the final period of play.
Vernon outshot West Kelowna by a 17-8 margin in the final period as their power play added to the lead at the 3:20 mark with Griffen Barr deflecting a shot from Dylan Compton in the slot past the glove side of Zol to extend the Vipers lead to 5-0.
Reagan Millburn added a power play goal just over two minutes later at the 5:30 mark of the final period, poking a puck over the goal line after a strong zone entry from Isaac Tremblay before Max Borovinskiy concluded the scoring with just 1:01 remaining in the game and iced a final score of 7-0 in favour of the Vipers and marked the first shutout against for the Warriors this season.
Cayden Hamming started in Game #4 for West Kelowna turning aside 7 of the 11 shots thrown his way in his 2nd loss of the playoffs before Angelo Zol came on in relief and made 18 saves on 21 shots in his first playoff appearance. Ethan David was perfect, stopping all 28 shots he faced in his 2nd playoff win and first career playoff shutout.
FINAL SCORE: 7-0 Vipers
SHOTS ON GOAL: 32-28 Vipers
WARRIORS PP: 0/6
WARRIORS PK: 2/4
3 STARS:
1) Ethan David (28-save shutout)
2) Dylan Compton (1-2-3)
3) Hank Cleaves (1-1-2)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Walker Erickson (0-1-1)
ATTENDANCE: 1,701
The series shifts back to West Kelowna all tied at 2-2 for Game #5 of the best-of-seven Interior Conference Quarter Finals series between the Warriors and Vernon Vipers on Friday night. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM with tickets available for purchase on the Warriors website as well as in-person at the Warriors Office and Box Office ahead of puck drop.