It had been almost two months since the Vernon Vipers had won on the road. Their last road victory was over the Cowichan Valley Capitals back in December. Saturday night, however, the offense exploded, the goaltending was great and the Snakes were able to come away with their second straight victory.
The Vipers struck first off a great individual effort from TJ Dumonceaux to race past Adam Plant and as he was falling managed to lift it over the shoulder of Andy Desautels. Later in the period the Vipers would capitalize on another chance as Dexter Dancs on his 19th birthday finished off a beautiful passing play to make it 2-0 after 2. Austin Smith was solid in the opening period, but he would be heavily relied on in the middle frame.
The Vipers found themselves in penalty trouble as they would take four straight penalties, but before all that went down, Brett Mulcahy scored his 27th of the season and 3rd as a Viper to give Vernon an important 3-0 lead. The Viper PK was fantastic with many blocked shots and some key saves from Smith. The powerplays led to a momentum swing and on a number of occasions it looked like the Warriors were going to break out. The defense and goaltending would hold and the period would end 3-0 despite Vernon being outshot 18-8.
The Vipers increased their lead early in the third as Liam Coughlin snapped home a shot from the slot to give the Vipers a 4-0 lead. The Warriors cut it to three as Tyson Dallman walked out from the corner and went post and in. 9 minutes later saw Dallman finish off a two on one after a key penalty kill and quickly it was 4-2 and it looked like the Warriors were starting to find their groove. The Vipers had different plans as the forecheck led to a turnover and Colton Sparrow would get the three goal lead restored. Ninety seconds later Coughlin would score his second and send the Vipers away with a nice 6-2 victory.
My 3 Key Thoughts
1) - Bumped Slump - It was nearly 2 months to the day since the last road win for the Vipers. A span that saw them go 0-6-1-0. Tonight the effort was much different than I`ve seen in quite some time while the Vipers were the visitors. They brought the physical play, they forced the issue, which caused turnovers and they capitalized on their early chances to gain confidence. Winning on the road in this division is extremely difficult and there was no panic in the slump, but this win feels good for the guys for a number of reasons the biggest of which is Salmon Arm and Merritt getting 4 points this weekend as well.
2) - Spreading the Wealth - There were 5 different scorers for the Vipers as all 4 lines had chances. The line of McNicholas, Dancs and Coughlin were at their best chiming in on 3 of those goals. When you can get scoring from three of the four lines a team tends to have success and tonight that was true for the Vipers.
3) - Shut Down The Snipers - The top scorers for the West Kelowna Warriors were kept in check all night long. Cotton, Masters, Lloyd and Pope had looks at the net, most of which were on the powerplay. The only line that gave the Vipers fits was the line of Anholt, Dallman and Simmonds who were in on both Warrior goals. The chances those top guys had were mostly to the outside and Smith did a nice job of limiting second chances. The Warriors are a potent offensive team so when you keep them to 2 goals and none from the top guys it feels even more satisfying for the players.
The Vipers hit the road again on Friday as they head to Langley for the first of two against the Rivermen. You can hear all the action on 107.5 KissFM starting at 7pm with the pregame show from the Langley Events Centre.
No comments:
Post a Comment