The Saturday before last the Clearwater Peewee Warriors traveled to Kelowna to take on the regular season champs, the Rockets. Clearwater had disposed of the second place Revelstoke Grizzlies the weekend before, and Kelowna had taken out the fourth place Penticton team. The final match-up was sure to be an epic battle for the right to visit sunny Fort Nelson, host of the Peewee Tier 4 Provincials.
Game one in Kelowna started out great with our team excited to show the Rockets that it meant business. The Warriors took the play to Kelowna early and their goaltender had to stand on his head to keep them in the game. However, battling a deep lineup proved to be too much for the Warriors, and they dropped game one to the Rockets.
Game two on Sunday in the friendly confines of the North Thompson Sportsplex (or not so friendly if you were from Kelowna) was where the Warriors played with their backs to the wall. The best of three series came down to this - an entire year’s worth of work staked on one game.
With friends and family watching, the Warriors played an emotional game. They battled until the final horn, playing very physical Clearwater hockey ... leaving it all on the ice. Coming up short to end the series and essentially their playoff season, the Warriors lost the battle 6 - 3.
“Congrats to the Kelowna Rocket team and good luck in sunny Fort Nelson,” said coach Ole Kjenstad.
“On behalf of my co-coaches Hieth Weninger and Mike Mucha I would first like to thank our players. It’s a long season, you worked hard, and you should be very proud of yourselves,” Kjenstad added.
The coach gave special thanks to manager Christy Kjenstad for keeping the team organized. He thanked Carrie Weninger for being the Warriors’ jersey mom and Crystal Wadlegger for being first aid/ safety coordinator.
“To the parents who volunteered at games, we could not have done it without you. See you next year, Warriors,” the coach said.