Doyle Cup: Game 3 Vernon @ Grande Prairie (Game Preview)

Vernon (14-5) @ Grande Prairie (15-5)

The Vernon Vipers now have to finish their season on the road. The team played its last home game of 2008-09 Saturday night. The remainder of the Doyle Cup will be held in Alberta, the winner of this series will move onto the Royal Bank Cup in Victoria. You could say is a must win for the Grande Prairie Storm, as they don’t want to go down 3-0 to the Vernon Vipers. A win by Vernon and they will have a strangle hold on the series. The Storm will hold the upper hand atleast for the first game as heres a rink where the Vipers have never played in, a rink where the Storm know all too very well. The Vipers are going to have to try and jump on the Storm and get on the scoreboard first, try and take the crowd out of tonights game. Vernon needs to play a full 60 minutes, & keep up the physical play. The Vipers are going to have to get lots of pucks on net and try and get traffic in front of Chad Carder. Both teams will have to stay out of the penalty box. Grande Prairie is going to have to try and get to Andrew Hammond early and often, something they didn’t do in the first two games. The Storm will have to try and get pucks through the Viper d-men. Grande Prairie needs a much better performance in tonights contest if they want to prolong this series. Somehow the Storm are going to have to try and create chances, and generate some kind of offensive attack. You can listen to tonights broadcast on 107.5 Kiss FM with Todd Miller, starting at 6:15pm

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:

April 17th @ Vernon: Game 1: Vernon wins 2-1

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

April 18th @ Vernon: Game 2: Vernon wins 6-2

For the second straight night the Storm opened the scoring. Bobby Tyson scored at 5:09 from Jordon Harrison. Sahir Gill on the man advantage scored at 6:32 to tie the game. Kyle Bigos and Connor Jones picked up the assists. Kellen Jones on the powerplay put Vernon ahead 2-1 at 9:53 with Connor Jones & Sahir Gill collecting the assists. Cameron Brodie would give Vernon a two goal lead at 16:53 from Sahir Gill & Connor Jones. Matt Milne who allowed three goals on 14 shots was pulled after 20 minutes of play before Chad Carder took over in the 2nd period. Bryce Kakoske at 7:43 was the only scoring in the middle frame, assists going to, Cory Kane & James Kerr. In the 3rd the Vipers would put this one away, Chris Crowell at 10:12 from Braden Pimm & Cody Ikkala. Doug Reid snuck one past Hammond late at 17:23 with assists going to, Dennis Rix and Zahn Raubenheimer. Carder would head to the bench for an extra attacker, Rob Short would hit the empty net at 18:36 unassisted giving Vernon the 6-2 victory. With just 26 seconds remaining, Elias Grossmann & Josh Juell lost their cool in some cheap shots along the boards. A mini line brawl took place with tempers heating up. Andrew Hammond makes 21 saves for the win, Chad Carder makes 23 saves in the loss.

3 Stars:

1st Star: Connor Jones

2nd Star: Sahir Gill

3rd Star: Kellen Jones

http://www.esportsdesk.com/leagues/hockey_boxScores.cfm?clientID=2668&leagueID=6616&gameID=689067

Vernons Leading Playoff Scorers:

Connor Jones 22 pts
Sahir Gill 21 pts
Kellen Jones 20 pts
Cory Kane 13 pts
Braden Pimm 13 pts
Mike Collins 12 pts
Chris Crowell 12 pts
Rob Short 10 pts
Bryce Kakoske 9 pts
James Kerr 7 pts
Kyle Bigos 7 pts
Andrew Hammond 14-5 Record 4 Shutouts

Grande Prairies Leading Playoff Scorers:

Morgan MacLean 23 pts
Zahn Raubenheimer 22 pts
Blake Clement 21 pts
Dennis Rix 20 pts
Carter Rowney 19 pts
Tanner Fritz 12 pts
Doug Reid 12 pts
Adam Young 10 pts
Matt Williams 7 pts
Chad Carder 14-4 Record 1 Shutout