The Kamloops Rattlers led by A.J. Lockwood and Jr. call-up Russell McIntosh came back to defeat the Kelowna Raiders 8 to 5 in Kamloops last evening. Both players scored to break a 5 to 5 tie late in the third period to send the semi-final series into the final game 3 in Kelowna on Tuesday evening. The Raiders played well all evening and despite the strong effort from the whole squad and in particular Luke Bailey and Vic Wiens, they could not capitalize on two five minute penalties to the Kamloops team with their power play.

Final series game will be at 8pm at the Kelowna Memorial arena.

The Raiders drew first blood in their best of 3 semi-final games with the Kamloops Rattlers. The final score: 14 to 6 for the Raiders. After trailing by a goal after the first period, the Raiders came back with a vengeance, scoring 8 goals on shell-shocked goalie Mike Smith. Offensively, it was complete team effort with the Raiders capitalizing on fast, accurate passing which kept the Rattler defence off-balance for the remainder of the game. Kelowna’s defence was virtually impenetrable at times with Kelowna’s Brody Daft and Victor Wiens intercepting  and capitalizing on Kamloop’s mistakes all evening. Exceptional offensive performances came from Kyle MacLennan 3g 2a, Pho Heng 3g 1a, Luke Bailey 1g 4a, Joe Brown 1g 3a, Jacob Illichmann 2g 2a, Braden Renner 2g, with singles added from Brody Daft and Vic Wiens. Kelowna goalie Graham Cousins withstood a barrage of 58 shots to cap off an excellent defensive effort.

The series resumes Wed. evening in Kamloops. If a third game is required, the series will return to Kelowna on Tuesday, Aug.2.