Doyle Cup: Game 2 Grande Prairie @ Vernon: (Game Preview)

Grande Prairie (15-4) @ Vernon (13-5)

For all you Viper fans, a Vipers win tonight and this could be the last and final home game of the season for Vernon hockey fans. A win by the Grande Prairie Storm and Game 3 will be held in Vernon tomorrow night. The Vipers looked very poised and confident for the most parts of last nights Game 1 of the Doyle Cup. Vernon hung on for the 2-1 victory but for the most parts, really took it to the Storm, outplaying, outworking and outhitting them most of the game. Vernon’s defence was solid and I was a little surprised but the Vipers top two lines played very well on the smaller ice surface in the Civic Arena. Vipers peppered Chad Carder with 38 shots and need to do the same tonight, with very little time and space the Vipers are going to have to get lots of pucks towards the net, try and get some bodies in front of Carder and once again play physical in the smaller rink. Grande Prairie looked a little flat last night, didn’t have much jump. Don’t forget the Storm havnt played in almost two weeks and with the Interior Loggers in town, all hotels are booked solid. So the Storm have been staying in Kelowna and making the 45 minute plus bus ride back and forth to Vernon. Grande Prairie managed just seven shots in the first period and then four in each of the next final two periods, if they expect to win they need to get more pucks and shots towards Andrew Hammond. You bet Mike Vandekamp will have his troops ready to go tonight. Get in line early if you want a good seat, as its first come first serve. You can listen to tonights broadcast on 107.5 Kiss FM with Todd Miller, starting at 6:45pm

You can check out the Grande Prairie Storms web site for info and updates on this series as well. A very well done web site.

http://www.gpstorm.com/association.aspx

Here’s a look at the series:

After some good pressure by the Vipers and controlling most of the opening period the Storm would open the scoring, Morgan MacLean at 15:50 with Carter Rowney and Brenden Turnbull picking up the assists. Vernon would outshoot Grande Prairie 15-7. Braden Pimm would tie the hockey game at 6:44 in the 2nd period after some nice three way passing, Mike Collins and Chris Crowell would collect the assists. It was all Vipers in the 3rd, Connor Jones goal at 2:54 stood up to be the winner. Kellen Jones & Sahir Gill collected the assists. Vipers went 0-4 on the powerplay, while Grande Prairie goes 0-2. Andrew Hammond picks up the win making just 14 saves. Chad Carder takes the loss making 36 saves.

3 Stars:

1st Star: Connor Jones

2nd Star: Braden Pimm

3rd Star: Chad Carder

http://www.esportsdesk.com/leagues/hockey_boxScores.cfm?clientID=2668&leagueID=6616&gameID=689056

Vernons Leading Playoff Scorers:

Connor Jones 19 pts
Kellen Jones 19 pts
Sahir Gill 18 pts
Cory Kane 12 pts
Mike Collins 12 pts
Braden Pimm 12 pts
Chris Crowell 11 pts
Rob Short 9 pts
Bryce Kakoske 8 pts
James Kerr 6 pts
Kyle Bigos 6 pts
Andrew Hammond 13-5 Record 4 Shutouts

Grande Prairies Leading Playoff Scorers:

Morgan MacLean 23 pts
Zahn Raubenheimer 21 pts
Blake Clement 21 pts
Dennis Rix 19 pts
Carter Rowney 19 pts
Tanner Fritz 12 pts
Doug Reid 11 pts
Adam Young 10 pts
Matt Williams 7 pts
Chad Carder 14-3 Record 1 Shutout