The Osoyoos Coyotes were defeated 3-1 in the first of two home games against the Kelowna Chiefs Wednesday night.
The win for the Chiefs puts them only a single point behind the Summerland Steam in the battle for second place in the Okanagan Division, and 11 points behind the first-place Coyotes.
The Coyotes have played 41 games, Kelowna has played 40 and Summerland has played 39.
The Coyotes and Chiefs face each other again at the Sun Bowl Arena this Saturday. After that, the Coyotes will have only five games until the end of the regular season.
In Wednesday’s game, the two goalies – Daniel Paul for Osoyoos and Joseph McLeod for Kelowna – were picked as home and visiting stars respectively.
Paul faced 37 shots on goal and McLeod faced a staggering 49.
The Chiefs scored the first goal of the game in the final minutes of the first period.
With less than a minute remaining in the period, Colin Bell scored for Osoyoos to tie the game. The two Carters – Robinson and Shannon – got the assists.
Kelowna got the only goal of the second period when Aidan Bar-Lev-Wise connected just over five minutes into the period.
The Chiefs’ 2-1 lead held for most of the third period.
The Coyotes gambled and pulled Paul for an extra attacker, trying to tie the score in the final minute.
But with just 54 seconds remaining, Bar-Lev-Wise got his second goal of the night for the Chiefs, scoring on the empty net.
On Saturday the two teams will have a chance to try again with game time at the Sun Bowl starting at 7:35 p.m.
In other remaining games of the season, the Coyotes travel to Summerland to face the Steam on Friday, Feb. 9.
The next night they host the North Okanagan Knights in the first of two games against the Armstrong team. The following Wednesday, Feb. 14, the two teams play again in Armstrong.
To finish the season in the middle of the month, the Coyotes travel to Revelstoke and then return home for one more game against the Knights.
With three of the remaining games being against the last-place Knights, who have only won 13 games this season, it would take a major spell of bad luck for the Coyotes not to finish first in their division.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
