West Kelowna Warriors open 2022-2023 season with lone island road trip

Photo: Wayne Moore/file

Warriors will host Wenatchee in their 2022-2023 home opener.

The West Kelowna Warriors will become very familiar with life on the road when they kick off the 2022-2023 BC Hockey League season.

The Warriors will kick off the new season with their lone Island road trip in Cowichan Valley and Victoria.

In fact, five of their first eight, including their first trips to Cranbrook and Wenatchee, are on the road.

Hitting the road early is something head coach Simon Ferguson sees as a positive.

"Any time you are spending time on the road on buses and forced awkward scenarios, you kind of want to go through in the first little while to create those bonding experiences," said Ferguson, reached at the team's development camp in Boston.

The Warriors home opener is set for Friday, Sept. 30 against the Wenatchee Wild. Penticton make their first of three appearances to Royal LePage Place the following night.

The schedule also sees them play 16 of 28 away from home prior to the new year, as well as a string of seven straight on the road from Jan. 27 to Feb. 17.

That leaves a large number of home dates at the back end of the schedule, with the club playing 10 of their final 12 inside the cozy confines of Royal LePage Place, where they finished 19-6-1-0 this past season.

"We had a real good record at home last year, and it puts us in the right spot to make a push to the end of the year.

"At the end of the year after a long season if you do a lot of travelling at the end of the year you're a little more worn down where as if you are sleeping in your own bed and playing in front of your fans, you'll be a little more energized."

Teams will again play a 54-game, unbalanced schedule including 26 games at home and 26 on the road, plus two games in Chilliwack as part of the league Showcase which have not yet been announced.

The Warriors will play 44 of the 54 games within the Interior Conference with the other 10 against Coastal Division competition.

Within their own division, the Warriors will see Penticton and Merritt seven times each with five games slated against each of the other six teams.

The league has also moved more games to Friday and Saturday nights with 83 per cent of games scheduled for those prime nights.

The Warriors will play 12 Friday and eight Saturday games with two scheduled for Sunday afternoon and just three midweek games.

They will also host the Merritt Centennials for a Family Day matinee Monday, Feb. 20.

The six month regular season concludes March 26 with the post season slated to begin Friday, March 31.