The Vernon Vipers came within 20 minutes of a 4 point weekend as they squared off with the Penticton Vees and Victoria Grizzlies. One lack luster period led to their demise as the Vees would rattle off 3 straight powerplay goals to come from behind with a 4-2 victory. The Vipers seemed to learn their lesson on Sunday as they had a 2 goal lead and put the Grizzlies away with 3 goals in the first five minutes of the third period. Overall there was a lot to like about the Vipers game this weekend, but the poor third period Friday is the lone disappointment.
The Vipers started the weekend with a home game with the league leading Penticton Vees. These two teams are very well matched as demonstrated in the previous games which were solved by a goal. The Vipers led for 40 minutes before a surge from the Vees in the third led to powerplay opportunities which they converted on to win the game 4-2. The Vees now own 3 victories over the Vipers, but they have been far from easy wins.
The Vipers struck just 16 seconds into the game as Luke Voltin stole a cross ice pass from the Vee defenders and powered a wrist shot by a surprised Hunter Miska to get the home side off on the right foot. The Vipers killed off two penalties and thanks to fantastic goaltending from both sides the Vipers took a 1-0 lead into the intermission.
The Vipers found themselves shorthanded again in the second period and has been a common theme all year it was the shortman that found the offense as Anthony Latina stole a puck at his own blueline and broke in on Miska and slipped a puck under the Minnesota product to give Vernon a 2-0 lead. The game was back and forth with both teams trading time in the offensive zone a producing a ton of shots. Once again the middle period had stellar goaltending. The Vees would finally take advantage of a powerplay as Riley Alferd skated onto a puck in the slot and rifle it over the shoulder of Jarrod Schamerhorn to make the score 2-1. The Vipers had a glorious opportunity in the final minute of the frame, but Hunter Miska made arguably the save of the season robbing Luke Voltin and keeping it 2-1 after 2 periods. That save combined with a double minor penalty proved to be a turning point in the game.
The Vees came out buzzing as they really carried the play and hemmed the Vipers in their own zone, but the Vipers seemed to weather the storm until the final 5 minutes when Trever Fidler was penalized for double minor high sticking penalty. The Vees immediately converted as Demico Hannoun snuck in the back door and tied the game up at 2. The Vees took the lead a minute later as Jack Ramsey showed off some nice hand eye coordination redirecting a puck past Schamerhorn to give the Vees their first lead of the game. Matt Serratore would finish the game into an empty net to make the final score 4-2.
The Vipers saw a great opportunity slip away on Friday and were rightfully disappointed in their third period effort. Learning how to put teams away is a lesson not easily learned and the Vipers learned it the hard way.
Here's the scoring summary:
Period 1
Vernon Vipers - Luke Voltin (3) - (Meek, Shiplo) - 0:16
Period 2
Vernon Vipers - Anthony Latina (10) - (SH) - (unassisted) - 6:40
Penticton Vees - Riley Alferd (15) - (PP) - (Serratore, Bast) - 17:05
Period 3
Penticton Vees - Demico Hannoun (15) - (PP) - (Russell, Jost) - 14:31
Penticton Vees - Jack Ramsey (15) - (PP) - (Bast, Alferd) - 15:31
Penticton Vees - Matt Serratore (10) - (EN) - (unassisted) - 19:25
Shots - Penticton 46 Vernon 32
Powerplays - Penticton 3 for 7 Vernon 0 for 3
The Vipers looked to put that tough loss on Friday behind them when the Victoria Grizzlies came to town on Sunday afternoon. After a slow start to the game on both sides the Vipers would pull away from a Grizzlies team that looked tired both physically and mentally. Overall it was a pretty good effort from a Viper team that won't see home ice again for a week and a half.
There were lots of stops and starts in the first period as neither team really seemed that engaged or energized. Chalk that up to a Sunday start or feeling the opposition out, but it took both teams at least half the period to get their game legs under them. The Vipers found themselves on a powerplay midway through the period and that man advantage really didn't generate any chances, but as luck would have it another Grizzly penalty put them back on the powerplay and it was night and day. They moved the puck around and put pucks at the net and it was that philosophy that allowed TJ Dumonceaux to open the scoring. That sparked the Vipers who took it to the Grizz in the final minutes, but couldn't beat Stiliadis.
Just like the first period, the second period was a bit slow paced to start. The intermission seemed to suck the life out of both teams. One bright spot to a slower period is that the Vipers seemed to be making the smart plays in their own zone. I can't recall too many poor plays in their own end and thats a positive that would serve them well. The PK was another bright spot on Sunday as they had two crucial kills. They switched the momentum to offense as Colton McCarthy batted home a rebound in front of the net for his first goal in a Viper uniform. The Vipers held the dreaded two goal lead into the intermission.
Unlike two days prior, the Vipers started the period off well and generated more offense as Trever Fidler tipped a point shot past Stiliadis to make it 3-0. Less than two minutes later Luke Shiplo converted for his second of the season to make it 4-0. Just 14 seconds later Liam Finlay snapped home a pass from Williamson to make it 5-0. They scored 3 goals in 2 minutes and 4 seconds which looked like they learned how to put a team away. The Grizzlies would get a PP marker midway through the period to make it 5-1, but thats the way this contest would end.
Here's the scoring summary:
Period 1
Vernon Vipers - TJ Dumonceaux (5) - (PP) - (Shiplo, Finlay) - 15:32
Period 2
Vernon Vipers - Colton McCarthy (1) - (Meek, Latina) - 14:20
Period 3
Vernon Vipers - Trever Fidler (5) - (Citron) - 2:20
Vernon Vipers - Luke Shiplo (2) - (Finlay) - 4:10
Vernon Vipers - Liam Finlay (6) - (Williamson) - 4:24
Victoria Grizzlies - Brett Gruber (10) - (PP) - (Moore, Dixon) - 10:06
Shots - Victoria 31 Vernon 34
Powerplays - Victoria 1 for 6 Vernon 1 for 7
The Vipers will head into an important week of practice before heading on the road for a weekend set in West Kelowna and Langley. The Viper coaching staff has seen direct correlation between work ethic in practice and in games, so I'm very confident it will be a strong hard working practice week for a big divisional matchup in West Kelowna. You can catch all the action on Friday on 107.5 KissFM starting at 6:45 with the pregame show!
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