Posse Struggling In The New Year

Submitted by W. George Elliott

Copyright 2018 Similkameen Gazette

Used by Permission

Posse Struggling In The New Year

  Princeton Posse started 2018 with a 2-1 loss to Osoyoos on January 3 and a 6-3 loss to Summerland the following night. On January 6 they hosted Kelowna Chiefs at Princeton Arena. Possibly the ‘jersey switch’ was going to brighten their game. The KIJHL has had teams wear their home jerseys on the road and their road jerseys at home for the first part of the season. The teams reverted back to home jerseys at home and road jersey when on the road on January 1^st. The game against Kelowna was the first time the Princeton fans saw their team in their bright, white home colours this season.

  While it was a fresh look for the fans in the stands and watching the webcast at home, it didn’t appear to add any sparkle to the game itself.

  Kelowna scored first at 16:23 (Lane Paddison from Juanre Naude and Myles Mattila) of the first period and added another one at 7:22. That unassisted marker was credited to Brett Watala.

  There was no scoring in the second period and Princeton amped it up out-shooting the Chiefs 14-9 in that 20-minute period. While the middle frame was filled with infractions, they were all of the minor variety except two unusual ones. The Posse earned a Team Penalty at 9:26 for Too Many Men On The Ice and Kelowna chalked up a Team Penalty as time expired. The coaching staff earned that one for Unsportsmanlike Conduct.

  In fact, for anyone following behind the play throughout most of the last half of the game they would have spotted a number of stunts that could have fallen under the same category.

  The third period saw Kelowna extend their lead to 3-0 at 10:45 (Kaden Stewart from Tyler Love and Brendan Laing). Just 51-seconds later Kelowna’s Cole Williams clanged one in off the Posse net crossbar to make it a 4-0 game. Assists went to Brett Watala and Tyler Love. At 3:25Princeton pulled their goalie for an extra man while short-handed and despite several tries, Kelowna could not get the puck past centre ice for quite some time. The Posse unit was working extremely well and eventually let a couple slip through. Kelowna added an empty net goal with just 19.5-seconds left on the clock. Credit went to Zach Erhardt with assists going to Brett Watala and Brendan Laing.

  Final Score: Kelowna 5, Princeton 0. Shots on Goal: Kelowna 37, Princeton 35.