Viper Vault

The Vipers had a great chance to stop the Penticton Vee win streak, but four unanswered goals in the third period gave the Vees a 6-4 win at home.

Mike Reilly’s winner came at 11:26 when he went behind the Viper net and came out to jam the puck past Kirby Halcrow, who unluckily had been pushed into his net by a falling team mate.

That’s the kind of period it was for the Vipers, who had been the better team for 45 minutes. Leading 4-2, they paid a price for failing to clear their zone. Zach Urban’s hopeful wrist shot went through a forest of legs and beat Halcrow on the short side at 5:10.

Urban was involved in the tying goal as well. He hit Geoff Crisfield along the wall, dislodging Crisfield’s stick in the process. The puck came loose to Bryce Gervais, who buried his 37^th of the season.

Joey Benik put the nail in the coffin with his empty netter at 19:22.

The loss was a bitter pill for the Vipers who fashioned leads of 1-0, 3-1, and 4-2.  Along the way, they played spirited hockey, skating and moving the puck as well as they have all year. Although out shot 26-19, they matched the Vees’ scoring chances at 18 apiece and pummelled them with 52 hits, a season high.

The Vipers played Russian Roulette with the Vee power play, which operates at nearly 40% at home. However, resolute penalty killers restricted the Vees to two goals in seven opportunities.

It seemed that the Vees had scored on their first try early in the first period but referee Grant Tyson ruled that Kirby Halcrow had stopped Wade Murphy’s back door attempt from crossing the line.

The Vipers did capitalize in their first power play, at 13:14 of an exciting first period. A pinpoint Darren Nowick pass found an unmarked Aaron Hadley at the edge of Michael Garteig’s crease.

That 1-0 lead held up until 4:22 of an even more exciting second period when Connor Reilly’s pass from behind the net found Logan Johnston for his first power play goal of the season.

The goals kept coming. A determined effort by Brendan Persley saw him win a puck battle to Garteig’s left and shovel the puck in front for Jedd Soleway to put the Vipers ahead. Then a burst of brilliance by John Knisley gave his team a 3-1 lead. He dispossessed Mike Reilly at the Viper line and steamed down the right wing. His rocket wrister beat Garteig high on the glove side.

The Vees bounced back with another power play marker, an absolute screamer by Wade Murphy that found the top corner at 14:42.

The Viper power play struck again at 1:27 of the third period – Adam Tambellini’s big league shot from the slot gave the Vipers a 4-2 lead and, based on the way they were playing, it looked like they would derail the Penticton express train. However, the puck did not bounce the Vipers’ way from that point on.

Jason Williamson was “proud of the team’s effort tonight. We were better than the Vees for two periods and deserved a better fate. Our guys left everything on the ice tonight. I hope we have something left for tomorrow night against Westside.”

The Warriors will come to the Wesbild Centre for a 7 pm game, a must win contest for the Vipers.

Game Notes:

• Ben Gamache, who has been playing despite a painful injury, suffered another injury when he blocked a first period shot. He did not return to action.
• Riley Hunt missed his second successive game with illness and defencemen Luke Juha and Max Mowat are still on the sidelines with long term injuries. 
• Penticton’s Cody DePourcq was crushed by Ryan Renz in the first period and missed the rest of the game. He joined Kyle Beaulieu (fractured forearm) on the injured list.

Viper Vault

_{Aaron Hadley gets by Colton Dahlen. Photo: Roger Tepper, Edge Photography}

Vernoncentral.ca Star of the Game Video.

A pair of power play goals and a short handed tally made the difference as the Vipers returned home to defeat the Nanaimo Clippers 5-1 on Thursday.

Aaron Hadley led the way with two goals, including the ice breaker at 5:26 of the first period. Passes from Patrick McGillis and Adam Tambellini sprung him loose on the left side. He beat a defender wide, went behind the net and jammed a wraparound past netminder Billy Faust.

Tambellini, who finished with three points, scored the eventual winner on the power play, at 9:59. The Vipers passed the puck crisply, and Mike Zalewski eventually found Tambellini open in the right faceoff circle. Tambellini overpowered Faust with a wrist shot to the top corner.

Early in the second period, Vernon registered another power play goal. Again, Zalewski was the set up man, zipping a pass from the corner that Hadley tipped over a diving Faust 26 seconds into the period.

The Clippers replicated that goal one minute later when Luke Gordon directed Kyle Kramer’s cross ice feed past Kirby Halcrow at the far post. That was all the Clippers would get, however, as Halcrow had a strong game. He was particularly adept at stopping deflections of point shots with his pads or skates.

_{Tambellini loads up for his power play goal. Photo: Roger Tepper, Edge Photography}The Vipers iced the game midway through the second period when former Clipper, Colton Cyr, set up Mike Zalewski’s short handed goal. Cyr stripped David Iacono at the Viper blue line and moved down the right wing. Graeme McCormack, the lone Clipper defender, kept himself between Cyr and Mike Zalewski, so Cyr fired the puck on net. Zalewski swept in the rebound.

At the end of a quiet third period, Jedd Soleway cleaned up a yard sale in front of Faust for his 11^th goal in his rookie campaign.

In addition to the three special team goals, the Vipers kept a clean sheet during seven Clipper power plays. “We were more aggressive on the PK than we have been in recent games,” said Viper Assistant Coach, Chris Shaw. “Also, we took better care of the puck than in Merritt on Tuesday.” 

Temporarily at least, the Vipers move into a tie with Chilliwack for the last playoff spot in the BCHL’s Interior Division, but the Chiefs have two games in hand. On Friday, Vernon will be in Penticton while Chilliwack travels to Prince George.  

Viper Vault

_{Darren Nowick splits the D. Photo: Roger Tepper, Edge Photography}The Merritt Centennials broke out of their slump in a big way in Tuesday’s lone BCHL game, with a 7-1 home victory over the Vernon Vipers.

The Centennials had lost six in a row, including 4-0 and 4-1 defeats in Vernon, but they regained their scoring touch as they cashed in half of their scoring chances. Despite being outshot in the first two periods, they took a 4-0 lead into the second intermission and after surrendering a goal in the third, they rubbed salt in the Vipers’ wounds with three more opportunistic strikes.

Chad Brears and Brandon Bruce led the Merritt attack with two goals apiece. Brears gave the Cents a 2-0 lead in the first period, both in Kirby Halcrow’s crease. At 12:13, as three Cents crashed the crease, the puck bounced off Brears’s leg. The Vipers protested, claiming a kicking motion, but referee Steve Papp upheld his original call.

With four seconds remaining in the opening frame, Viper defenders relaxed in the corner to the right of Halcrow and a trio of Centennials brought the puck to Halcrow’s crease, where Brears banged it in.

Brandon Bruce then took care of the second period scoring. At 1:57, he followed Carter Shinkaruk to the net and popped in a rebound. He then took advantage of sleepy Viper defencemen to take a breakaway pass from Dylan Chanter and slip the disk between Halcrow’s pads at 14:44.

With the weight on their shoulders of shutout losses in their previous two appearances at the Nicola Valley Arena, the Vipers looked like they might be blanked again, but they finally got on the board at 3:38 of the third period. Mike Zalewski swept behind the net and set up John Knisley for a one-timer.

In that final frame, the Vipers generated more scoring chances than their hosts, but were limited to the one goal by Lino Chimienti’s solid goaltending and by the Merritt defenders’ ability to clear rebounds.

Merritt’s three remaining goals resulted from a combination of Centennial determination and indifferent Viper defending.

The win moves Merritt one point past idle Prince George in the race for second place in the Interior Division, while the Vipers lost a chance to tie Chilliwack for the last playoff spot in the Interior.  

Viper Vault

_{Ryan Renz checks Malcolm Gould on this play, but Gould had two points. File photo: Roger Tepper, Edge Photography}In a showdown for fourth place in the BCHL’s Interior Division, Chilliwack’s big guns outplayed Vernon’s big guns as the hometown Chiefs beat the Vernon Vipers 3-1 on Saturday.

Malcolm Gould and David Bondra, Chilliwack’s top two goal scorers, each had a goal in the win while Viper snipers Mike Zalewski, Darren Nowick, and Adam Tambellini were kept off the score sheet by a hungrier and more alert Chilliwack squad.

Mitch Gillam made splendid saves on Nowick and Tambellini during second period and third period power plays to ensure that the Chiefs did not squander a lead that was fashioned by opportunistic play. He was also fortunate that three Viper shots, one in each period, hit iron.

Malcolm Gould opened his account with a splendid individual effort in the first period. He stripped the puck from Brett Corkey at the Chiefs’ blue line, dashed down the left wing and beat Kirby Halcrow with a high shot to the glove side at 3:37.

Although the Chiefs pretty well owned the opening 10 minutes, the Vipers bounced back in the second half of the period and finished with more scoring chances than the Chiefs after 20 minutes. 

Chilliwack extended its lead to 2-0 at 5:43 of the second period after dispossessing a Viper defenceman at centre ice. Defenceman Anderson White joined the rush as four Chiefs flooded the Viper zone. Kirby Halcrow made a couple of good saves but David Bondra cashed in the second rebound.

Vernon responded with a Jedd Soleway goal at 11:14. Soleway cruised through the crease to deposit a Marc Hetnik rebound behind Gillam._{Jedd Soleway. File photo: Roger Tepper, Edge Photography.}

However, two minutes later another Viper centre ice miscue gave Spencer Graboski another Chilliwack breakaway, this time on the right wing. Once he got to the faceoff dots, he swerved left. Kirby Halcrow attempted a poke check but fell forward and lost his stick. Graboski, who had been forced very wide, had no difficulty lifting the puck over the sprawled goaltender.

The third period was evenly played, with the Vipers creating six scoring chances and the Chiefs five. Each team had a goal disallowed, although replays showed that the respective coaches had cause to question the referees’ decisions.

With their deserved victory, the Chiefs ease past the Vipers into the fourth and final playoff spot. Meanwhile, Prince George crept closer to second place Merritt with a 4-2 win in Trail.  Each of the three contenders for the third and fourth playoff places have 11 games remaining in the regular schedule.