Wednesday Night's game between the Vernon Vipers and Penticton Vees was hard to assess and analyze. It's easy to look at the box score and say the Vees were great and the Vipers were not. If you were at the game, watched on fast hockey or listened to the radio, the game was fairly even with one exception and it was a big exception: Six minutes in the second period.
The first period was very defensive with neither team generating a whole lot in the way of offense. It sure didn't start that way though as right off the opening faceoff there was a spirited fight between Liam Coughlin and Patrick Sexton. I asked Jason Williamson if he liked his top line guy dropping the gloves so early in the game. His response was mixed. He liked his player standing up for himself, didn't like having him off the ice of 5 plus minutes to start the game. The Vees struck first on a bit of a weak goal that I'm sure Austin Smith would want back as Antohny Conti found a hole in the Viper netminder from a sharp angle.
The second period saw the play open up a little bit as teams traded chances. The Vipers were then charged with an icing and the tired group couldn't get off the ice. Off the faceoff Cody DePourcq found a loose puck in the slot and as he was falling to the ice snapped it past Smith. Then the wheels fell of for the Vipers as they gave up a 3 on 2 and Brad McClure would make no mistake to increase the lead to 3-0. That would be the end of the night for Smith, not his best game, but he wasn't the reason the Vipers were down. Danny Todosychuk would draw in a be greeted with a nice effort from Max Coatta on a partial break to slip it past the goaltender and it was 4-0. The Vipers were then sloppy at their own blueline and Travis Blanleil would score to make it 5-0 heading into the break.
It was a much better effort for the Vipers in the third. They were skating, hitting and generating chances. Kenny Citron would score his first BCHL goal and Chase McMuprhy would tally his 3rd goal of the season off a scramble in front. The game would end 5-2.
My 3 Key Thoughts
1) Where Was The Dislike? - Other than the opening scrap four seconds in, there really wasn't much hatred or dislike between these two teams. Not many scrums after the whistles. Only five powerplays combined between both teams. I fully expected an all out war and that was not what we saw. Clearly it favoured the Vees on this night.
2) Meltdown - If you take 7 minutes of this game out, the Vipers played a very solid game. Not a great game, but good enough to stay competitive. Unfortunately those 7 minutes really bit the Vipers, but they'll learn their lessons and I'm confident we'll see a much better Vipers squad on Friday night in Trail.
3) SOEC - That building is hard to play in if you're the road team. The Vees are very comfortable in their own barn and it showed. The Vees improved to 9-1-0-1 in 11 games at the SOEC. Teams have to be near perfect to win in Penticton.
Looking at the positives the team didn't get too down on themselves and played a much better third period. They didn't allow the top ranked Vees powerplay to get set up in the three opportunities they had. A big weekend of hockey now faces the Vipers as they travel to Trail on Friday and then host the West Kelowna Warriors Saturday night.
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