It91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s been a bittersweet week for fans of the West Kelowna Warriors.
On Friday night, the BCHL club91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s faithful celebrated the news that the franchise would remain in the Okanagan.
Four days later, the 2016-17 season came to an abrupt end for the defending Canadian junior A champs.
On Tuesday night, the hometown Merritt Centennials defeated the Warriors 4-3 in overtime, sweeping Rylan Ferster91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s club from the BCHL playoffs in four straight games.
Stephan Seeger tied the game for Merritt with 26 seconds remaining in the third, then scored again at 2:03 of the extra period to finish off the best-of-seven Interior Division first-round series.
The Warriors fell in a hole early in the series, losing the first two games by just one goal at home91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ”6-5 and 4-3 in triple overtime. Merritt was a 6-2 winner in Game 3 on Monday.
Warrior fans breathed a sigh of relief on Friday night at Royal LePage Place when it was announced the club wouldn91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™t be leaving the city after all.
In January, owner Mark Cheyne had an agreement in principle to move the club to North Delta next season.
But when that deal fell through, a group of local investors stepped up to assume ownership of the Warriors, keeping the team at Royal LePage Place for the 2017-18 BCHL campaign.
