Chad Piper, goalie for the Armstrong Shamrocks, shut down the pesky Kelowna Raider forwards by stopping 47 shots to lead his team to a 5 to 3 victory last evening at the Nor-Val Arena in Armstrong. Kelowna was one goal up at the end of the first, Armstrong one up at the end of the second and came back to score 4 more in the third. Kelowna’s goaltender, Cory Fearon was equal to the task, stopping many breakaways and a penalty shot with an outstanding performance. Kelowna’s big guns were frustrated all evening with Armstrong’s tight defense. Armstrong capitalized on Kelowna’s mistakes and shaky line changes to create many two on ones which proved too much for Kelowna’s defence.

 The win puts Armstrong two points ahead of the Raiders to secure first place in the Okanagan Extreme Lacrosse League. They meet again in Kelowna at Memorial Arena on May 28^th.

For the second time in less than a week the Kelowna Raiders handed the Vernon Tigers their second loss. Returning Kelowna player Jarred Neigum notched 2 goals and 2 assists, skilled sniper Kyle MacLennan 2 goals 1 assist, rookie Jared MacLennan 2 goals and Colby Field 2 goals to lead the Kelowna scoring. Singles came from Hao Lieu and Joe Brown. Goaltender Cam Needham was outstanding in net and frustrated the Vernon gunners all evening. Kelowna’s defensive squad tied up Vernon’s fast breaking forwards and won battles for loose balls from the opening whistle.  

 Goals for Vernon came from Tyler Plante and Trevor McEachnie both of whom played solidly in a losing cause.

 The Raiders are looking forward to their May 14^th meeting with the Armstrong Shamrocks to attempt to redeem their loss from their season opener. The game promises to be a battle between Armstrong’s solid defence and door-slamming goaltending from Chad Piper and Kelowna’s high skilled, shifty forwards. Game time is 7:30 pm at the Nor-Val Arena in Armstrong.