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West Kelowna Warriors throttled the winless Merritt Centennials 9-2 Saturday at RLP

Warriors win streak at four

The West Kelowna Warriors came out of Saturday's 9-2 thrashing of the struggling Merritt Centennials unscathed.

Sometimes, in a lopsided win against a desperate and frustrated opponent, that's the most you can ask for.

For the most part, the Warriors kept their cool when things could have gotten out of hand against a team staring at an 0-11 start to the season.

"It can be really hard with young kids...you try and tell them to play the right way, but in their mind they want to do a little bit more because the score is going up," said head coach Simon Ferguson.

"Unfortunately when that happens you put yourself in a vulnerable position and that's kind of what happened a couple of time."

To their credit, the officials did a good job of keeping a lid on things late in the game when it could easily have gotten out of hand.

Captain Elan Bar Lev Wise paced the attack with two goals and two assists. Tyler Cristall had two goals and a helper while Felix Trudeau also notched a pair.

Zach Reim, Carter Schmidt and Brennan Nelson with his first BCHL goal also scored for the Warriors.

John Evans picked up four assists while Tyson Jugnaugh added three helpers.

After a slow start to the season, Cristall has goals in four straight and points in eight straight.

Cristall opened the scoring on a power play 40 seconds in, banging home a rebound for his sixth.

Leading 2-1 midway through the first, Cristall was the trigger man on a pretty three-way passing play with Marcus Jaughin and Nick Ardenaz. Seconds later, Trudeau banged home his first of two, chasing starter Keegan Maddocks from the net after allowing four goals on 10 shots in just 9:17 of work.

Emergency backup Colton Phillips-Watts went the rest of the way, allowing five goals on 26 shots.

The Warriors power play connected on four of nine opportunities while holding the Centennials off the scoresheet on their three opportunities.

Saturday's win was the Warriors fourth in a row and fourth straight to start the season on home ice.

They moved into a second place tie with Penticton and Prince George with 16 points, three in back of BCHL leading Salmon Arm.

The Warriors hit the road for a tough stretch that sees them play back-to-back games in Wenatchee Thursday and Friday before busing it back home to host the Vernon Vipers Saturday.

Ferguson hopes to get some of his injured bodies back at some point during that three-game stretch.

Forward Chase Defoe will definitely be back after missing both weekend game while sitting out a two-game suspension.

The team is still without injured forwards Nick Roukounakis and Jayden Price and defenceman Charles-Alexis Legault.



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