<div align="center"> Vancouver Whalers VS <span style='color:green'>Kelowna Knights </span>
5 VS 2

Game #131 Post-Game Show</div>


<div align="center">Summary of Game</div>

First Period

The first period of this game was a game of touch-tag between forward lines, both Kelowna and Vancouver racking up enough goals in the 1st to satisfy a full-length game -- which asks the question, where were the goalies in the 1st? Out to lunch sipping lattes and gossiping about girls? The Whalers hit the board first, with a bomb of a clapper to the back of the net courtesy of Connor MacDonald at 3:37; Kelowna kicked back, and kicked back hard with two goals back-to-back, the first, a wrister from Ty Justice, coming in about a minute after Vancouver put up the first point of the game, the second hammered home by Bergfalk at 7:33. But Vancouver wasn’t done yet -- responded in kind at 9:25 to even up the score two-a-piece. There was a sudden return to sanity made by both keepers, and the nets were both quiet until a final powerplay opportunity was taken to the bank by MacDonald at 15:23 for his second point of the game. Both teams came off the ice tired, but the mood was an excited one -- fueled by a crowd hungry for more goals.

<div align="center">

Quote:Connor MacDonald’s giant slap shot opening scoring season at the beginning of the first period of play.

</div>


Second Period

Second period, much like the first, but Kelowna putting up more than their fair share of the points -- line stamina seemingly endless compared to a quickly petering Vancouver team. Wilson of the Knights with the first, in the net one minute into the game. Fairly quick response by the Whalers, with the unlikely Frank Latta popping in a dirty backhand past Aittokallio at 3:47. But the Knights pressed onwards, netting two more goals against the Whalers, both tragically at even strength. The second half of the period scrummed out along the boards in the neutral zone, Vasily Horvat getting a little too enthusiastic about puck retrieval and gets sent to the bin in the 14th minute. Despite having the powerplay, Vancouver remains silent for the rest of the period -- the scoreboard sitting at 4 to 5, in Kelowna’s favor, blackening their mood as they trudged off the ice at the end of the twenty minutes.

<div align="center">

Quote:Vasily Horvat, fooling all of exactly nobody with these kind of stick tactics.

</div>


Third Period

A tenser, tighter start to the third period meant fewer points for both teams -- thankfully for both net minders -- but the end result was not in Vancouver’s favor. They wound up posting first on the board in the 3rd by the 7th minute, Conklin Owen and Jon Ross tag-teaming Aitto to equalize for Vancouver. They managed to scrap and hold onto that even points ice for a full five minutes, but Kelowna wasn’t done. 11:42 saw the game winner sneak past Link, courtesy of Wilson for his second goal of the game -- and then Wilson, scenting blood in the water in the last game minute with Link out of net, locked in the hat trick at 19:53. Kelowna walked off the winners.

<div align="center">

Quote:Trevor Wilson’s empty net goal, capping off a brutally high scoring game and a three-goal night for the Kelowna forward.

</div>

<div align="center">Three Stats of the Game</div>

• For all the goaltending seemed absent in this game, by rights, the second period should’ve been so much worse for Vancouver -- Kelowna put up 14 shots to Vancouver’s 9 -- and yet big defensive stops and the sizable presence of a reanimated Triforce Link in goal stopped this game from being a runaway train in the second period.
  
• Vancouver is usually the law on the ice, but Kelowna out-hit the Whalers 19 to 12; and despite having an underwhelming presence in the face-off circle (KEL’s 39 to VAN’s 50), Kelowna seemed perfectly content to orchestrate Vancouver’s efforts to grind themselves to dust on the ice.
  
• Vancouver only capitalized on one of their three available powerplay opportunities this game, despite facing Kelowna’s middling, at best, penalty kill unit. Vancouver’s PP% is 18.23% for the season, which in and of itself, isn’t great -- 4th in the league, but the fervor and goal-eager nature of the game which should’ve played a bit extra into the Whaler’s efforts abandoned them in all but one attempt to take advantage of Kelowna’s on-ice mistakes.
  

<div align="center">Unsung Hero</div>

Vancouver’s man in the net Triforce Link deserves some recognition tonight. He had to face-up against a whopping 31 shots, and at the rate of success Kelowna was firing them off, every save counted in making sure the gap between Kelowna and Vancouver’s performance was as narrow as possible. While his first period in net wasn’t stellar, he put up bursts of truly next-level net-minding, failed only by his own tired defence. Here’s to you, Triforce Link. You tried.