VERNON — Despite battling until the very end, the Warriors were eliminated from the BCHL playoffs in a 5-0 loss in Vernon on Tuesday.
After staying alive thanks to a 4-1 home victory the night before, the Warriors returned to Vernon but proved unable to crack the Vipers’ robust defensive shell.
Former Warrior Brett Mulcahy opened the scoring 11:27 into the opening period, with a goal that would hold up as the eventual game-winner. Mulcahy’s eight of the playoffs also continued a trend that saw the team scoring first win every game in the series.
Brendan Persley (2), TJ Dumonceaux, and Liam Coughlin also scored for the Vipers.
Austin Smith stopped 29 shots for his first career playoff shutout, while Cody Porter made 25 saves in the defeat.
Tegtmeyer, who will continue his hockey career at Brown University next year, is one of ten Warriors moving on from Junior. In addition to five graduating 20 year-olds (Tyson Dallman, Reid Simmonds, Taki Pantziris, Ryan Fraser-Lee, and Braden Pears), the club has five younger skaters (Seb Lloyd, Adam Plant, Ben Tegtmeyer, Carl Hesler, and David Pope) already committed to NCAA programs for the 2014-15 season.
“I couldn’t ask for a better group to finish off my junior career with” Reid Simmonds stated after emerging from an emotional Warriors dressing room.
“We would have liked for it to go to a game seven and bring it back to West Kelowna” Simmonds says, “but we did our best to leave it on the ice.”
Simmonds also spoke of the “lifelong friends” made during his three-year tenure with the Warriors, vowing to keep in touch with his teammates in the coming years.
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