Vernon Wins Third Straight At Royal Bank Junior Tourney:

This is on the Morning Star web site:

Vernon wins third straight at Royal Bank junior tourney

By Graeme Corbett - Vernon Morning Star

Published: May 06, 2009

VICTORIA – The Vernon Vipers have already shown they can protect leads at the Royal Bank Cup, but on Tuesday night they demonstrated an ability to salvage victory with a 5-4 overtime win over the host Victoria Grizzlies.
Trailing by a pair of goals heading into the final 20 minutes, the Snakes put their trust in head coach Mark Ferner's systems and capitalized on their chances to earn the comeback.
Vipers' rookie forward Cole Ikkala played hero when he banged home the rebound off his own blocked shot at 9:17 of the first OT.
"It's definitely the biggest goal of my career," grinned the 18-year-old Philadelphia product. "I don't get too many overtime chances, and I was given a chance there and I just finished it.
"My first shot got blocked... it might have hit Shorty (linemate Rob Short), and it luckily enough just came right back to me and I just brought it around the pile and just threw it upstairs.
"They definitely brought it all. It was definitely the toughest game we've had. They were going 60 minutes, and we were lucky enough to come out with the win.
"We didn't get down on ourselves, and we just made sure we came out with a great effort in the third."
Kellen Jones got the reclamation project started when he cut in from the wing to beat netminder Anthony Greico at 6:05 of the third period.
With two minutes remaining, Mike Collins stunned the 1,631 fans when he wheeled in from the right corner to snap a low shot past Grieco (21 saves), assisted by defenceman Cody Ikkala.
"We knew we had to come out strong," said Collins. "We were down two goals and we didn't have the best period, but we wanted to prove we can beat anyone here.
"We had the determination to get it done. We were stringing shifts together in their zone, and that's what's going to do it for us."
It was a tight first period, but Vernon got the start they wanted when captain Chris Crowell buried the rebound off Cory Kane's shot from the side of the net on the powerplay late in the frame.
Kane set up a carbon-copy for the Vipers' second goal, only it was Bryce Kakoske who hammered the rebound past Grieco in the second stanza.
The Grizz responded with the first of four second-period goals when Cody Bremner crashed the net to beat Andrew Hammond at 2:41.
Brian Nugent, on a beauty cross-ice feed from Derek Lee, Sam Higgins, on a point shot that was deflected over top of Hammond, and Jonathan Milhouse, on yet another great set-up from Lee, completed Victoria's attack.
Milhouse says the Grizzlies' ability to create neutral-zone turnovers is what kept Vernon on their heels in the second frame.
"I thought we played well, but obviously at the end there we didn't play well enough," said Milhouse, who hails from Yorba Linda, Calif., the same hometown as the Vipers' Ryan Santana. "One of our game-plans was to play our systems to a tee and try to catch some odd-man rushes and bury our chances."
The Grizzlies don't appear to be too rusty from their long layoff in the playoffs, and Milhouse credits the team's dedication and fitness level as the key.
"When we were on our break there, the number one thing was conditioning. We skated a ton of practices, we had a lot of off-ice workouts. We knew it was going to be tough and we knew we needed to keep our conditioning up for this tournament. We've got good camaraderie in the room, so it was easy.
"We've come a long way with everybody and all the additions we've made, and everyone in the room thinks we can beat them."
Ferner knew it was going to be tough beating the Grizzlies in their own barn, and he praised his squad for not quitting when they were down.
"They're statistically the best team in our league and we knew it was going to be that type of game. We got ourselves into a bit of penalty trouble... and when you do that, especially when you play three games in three nights, it's starts to wear some guys down, but it's a pretty resilient group.
"Going into the third down two (goals), we just stuck to our game-plan, got pucks to the net and were fortunate to tie it up."
The Vipers have been getting balanced scoring at the RBC, and Ferner says having different players step up on a nightly basis is making things difficult for the opposition.
"We feel like that's what our team is about. On any given night, there's going to be someone that steps up. You look at that line (Short-Ikkala-Santana) last night and they get three goals, and they get the winner tonight. We don't just want to be a one-line offensive minded group. It's a little bit difficult to defend when, on any given night, someone is going to be the guy that puts the puck in the net."
Despite the loss, Grizz head coach Geoff Courtnall rated his team's effort, as well as the Vipers'.
"For 55 minutes, we played great, but late in the third, we started to make some mistakes," said Courtnall, adding faceoffs cost them. "They've got the confidence right now that they can win, and we played like we didn't. We made some plays we hadn't made in the whole game, and gave them a chance to get back in it.
"They're a good team, they've got a lot of speed... and a lot of big, strong defencemen back there that you've got to skate against. We match up well against them, and I think we can get more out of some guys."
The Vipers, who are guaranteed a berth to Friday's semifinals, get a well-earned rest day Wednesday before tangling with the Central regional champions Kingston Voyageurs in their final round-robin game Thursday afternoon (2 p.m.).
"We feel great – three games, three nights, three wins," grinned Collins. "We'll get some rest now, and hopefully we can have some fun tomorrow and get our minds off hockey for a bit."
Added Ferner: "When you have a day off, it should be a day off. We'll talk to the guys, and depending on the weather too, it's a well deserved day off by these guys. It's just recharging the batteries and making sure they're ready to go against Kingston."