The West Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ Warriors didn’t get the start to November they wanted as they fell to the Merritt Centennials 6-4 on Friday night at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.
Both teams exchanged first period goals just 2:01 apart as Johannes Løkkeberg scored his fifth goal of the season for the Warriors but Merritt’s Michael Felsing responded with his sixth of the campaign. Løkkeberg’s goal was assisted by Viggo Nordström and Owen Drury.
🇺🇸 + 🇸🇪 + 🇳🇴 = 🚨#BCHL | @BGSUHKY pic.twitter.com/piHF3N59GB
— West Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ Warriors (@BCHLWarriors) November 4, 2023
To start the second period, Callum Hughes scored on a great outlet play by goaltender Rorke Applebee on the powerplay to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead.
But the rest of the period was all Merritt as Dylan Lariviere scored his third and fourth goals of the year while Nathan Taylor scored also his fourth, making it 4-2 for the Centennials.
Less than four minutes into the third period, Merritt extended their lead when Dylan Wegner found the back of the net with his third of the season, making it 5-2.
The Warriors didn’t go down without a fight as they made it a one-goal game. Isaiah Norlin scored to make it 5-3. Late in the period, Felix Caron scored his team-leading 10th goal of the season at the 18:53 mark to make it 5-4.
But Merritt’s Ryan Spinale added an empty-net goal late in the game, giving the Centennials a 6-4 win.
Løkkeberg and Nordström each had multi-point nights for the Warriors while Merritt had five players finish the game with multi-point efforts.
The Warriors remain third in the BCHL’s Interior Conference with a 9-3-1-0 record. Merritt is now 5-7-1-1 on the year, sixth in the conference.
West Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ is back at home on Saturday night as it’s Ladies Night at Royal LePage Place. Wine is half-price all night long as the Warriors welcome the Cranbrook Bucks to town. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.
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