Vipers Book Finals Date With Broncos:

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Vipers book finals date with Broncos

By Graeme Corbett - Vernon Morning Star

VICTORIA – Following Thursday afternoon's penalty-filled 8-5 loss to the Vernon Vipers, Kingston Voyageurs' head coach Evan Robinson said discipline had been his team's Achilles heel at the Royal Bank Cup. It turned out to be a season-ending injury.
The Vipers cashed in four powerplay goals on 10 attempts as they doubled the Vees 6-3 in the RBC semifinals Friday afternoon at Bear Mountain Arena. The Snakes will face the defending champion Humboldt Broncos, who iced the Victoria Grizzlies 3-2 in an overtime thriller in the other Friday semi.
After resting a handful of vets in their final round-robin game against Kingston, the Vipers were back to full strength before 2,386 fans Friday, and it showed. The Vipers executed their systems with surgeon-like precision over the first 40 minutes to build a comfortable 5-0 lead. Vernon outshot the Vees 34-16, and allowed just two shots in the second frame.
The Vipers wasted no time getting on the board, as Bryce Kakoske collected a rebound off end boards and buried one past netminder Shawn Sirman at 1:50 on the powerplay.
"The legs felt good today, and my line played really well and our powerplay was clicking, so I just happened to be at the right place at the right time," said Kakoske, who recorded 2+2 to earn Vernon's player-of-the-game. "I've been waiting all year to play in these games, so it felt good to finally help out a little bit."
Kakoske's second came when he slammed home Adam Thompson's point shot that redirected to him at the side of the net on a third-period powerplay.
"Actually, I almost missed that one," laughed Kakoske. "It's just getting more and more comfortable being around all the new teams. We've seen everyone now and we kind of know what everyone's all about."
The announcer was still giving the details of Kakoske's first goal when Vipers' defenceman Cameron Brodie ripped his point shot past Sirman at 2:22 of the first period, assisted by Chris Crowell.
"All tournament it's (penalties) been our problem. I don't know if it's just because we're mentally tired... but every game we just got caught in taking chinsy stuff and it haunted us all tournament," said Robinson. "The skill level is very high... and we had trouble adjusting and had a tough time picking up guys and we got caught using our sticks way too much."
Robinson credited Vernon for a strong performance and for being a balanced hockey club.
"Their (Vernon's) depth and how quick they are off the transition. This team comes at you with all four lines and they have a lot of depth. And they have no real weakness, they have no Achilles heel. Their goaltender was great, they dee were big and good and moved the puck well, and they have four great lines.
Robinson also had plenty of praise for how his Vees conducted themselves this season, both on and off the ice.
"We're proud of them, they're champions. We didn't win this tournament, but we came in and did a pretty darn good job. We've got a pretty young team... and a lot of guys haven't been through a successful playoff runs, and we had to go five rounds to get the Dudley-Hewitt (Central title) to get here.
"Being four out of 143 – that's not bad."
The Vipers continued swarming the Vees piling up quality scoring chances. In their own end, netminder Andrew Hammond could have went for high tea at the Empress, as the Vipers allowed just two shots in the first 14 minutes of the first, the most difficult a bouncing dump-in from centre ice.
Mike Collins completed the first-period scoring when he rifled a long wrist shot past Sirman on the powerplay at 8:34, assisted by Kyle Bigos and Kakoske.
Vipers' forward Connor Jones was getting under Kingston's skin by digging for loose pucks in Sirman's crease, which resulted in
Mitchell Blatchford getting tossed for a check from behind late in the first.
Vernon continued their methodical demolition of the Vees in the second frame, spending most of the first 10 minutes in Kingston's zone. Vernon's end was pretty much a clean sheet of ice, and when Kingston did think about shooting, there was always a Viper to clog the lane or force the play on the perimeter. Crowell came up with a fearless block on Kevin Christmas's point shot.
Kingston player-of-the-game Scott Harrington credited the Vipers for a well-earned win, adding he was proud to have been part of the Vees' run to the RBC.
"They're a good team in all aspects of the game... they move the puck well, and they're a hard working team," said Harrington, of Vernon.
"It's been an unbelievable experience playing here with the guys. I thought we battled extremely hard on every shift of every game. Every guy should be extremely proud of themselves, they gave it their all as you can see in the last period. We were down 5-0 and we fought back every shift."
Added rugged Vees' forward Justin Levac: "This team is so close, it's like a family. Everything from the hotel we stayed in to the hockey we played is just unbelievable. It's an experience a lot of these guys won't get for the rest of their lives, so you just want to soak it all in. It's a sad day to leave a lot of the guys who aren't going to be back here next year, but overall I'm really proud of everyone."
Later in the second stanza, Vipers' forward Cory Kane danced around a Kingston defender and crashed the net. After a brief discussion with his linemen, referee Jonathan Trudel deemed the puck had crossed the line before Kane knocked the goal off its moorings.
Brodie recorded his second of the game when he fired a low one-timer just inside the left post on the powerplay with 50 seconds remaining in the second.
"We came out today and we knew we had a job to do," said Brodie. "We came out with a real strong effort in the first and second, and we kind of got a little ahead of ourselves, but we held it together for the third, and it was just a real great effort by everybody.
"We just come at them with wave upon wave of pressure. Our forwards are excellent at cycling the puck down low, and they get it up top where our dee just get it on net every time."
Kingston, who replaced Sirman with Cody Rosen to start the third period, attempted a rally, started when Levac converted a nice cross-ice feed from Anthony Geldart at 1:17.
The Vees' Ben Power then deflected Harrington's point shot to beat netminder Andrew Hammond at 7:34. Jeff Blackburn rounded out Kingston's attack when he knocked in a loose puck on Hammond's doorstep at 10:43 on the powerplay.
Robinson pulled Rosen with over three minutes to play, but Kingston couldn't generate any real offence. Vipers' forward Sahir Gill, on the other hand, managed to ding back-to-back posts on an empty net with just over a minute remaining.
While happy to be playing in the final, Vipers' head coach Mark Ferner expressed a little concern over how the Snakes played the final period against Kingston.
"We've worked all year to get to this position, even though we didn't finish the third period the way we would have liked to. We feel with our team, if we get up 3-0 early, especially in the first period, the game should be over. That's partly my responsibility to keep these kids focussed and we swayed away from it a little bit, but most importantly we played well enough to win.
"We have to refocus again for one more game. We've got a good group here, and we know we'll be ready for Sunday.
"Everybody at this time of year should realize what we're playing for. It's always nice to see guys step up, and we've had it pretty much the whole tournament. It's been someone new every game, and that's the way we built our hockey team, and we expect everyone to chip in one way or another."
Meanwhile, Shawn Hunter played hero as the Broncos stunned the Grizzlies with two seconds remaining in the first OT Friday night. Taylor Piller fired a puck on Grizz netminder Anthony Grieco, who allowed the puck to trickle through his legs to sit behind him in the crease where Hunter rushed in for the easy tap-in.
After Victoria's Derek Lee and Humboldt's Matthew Kirzinger traded goals in the first and second periods respectively, the Grizz' Justin Courtnall took a beauty pass from Shawn Stuart to break in at speed on netminder Mathieu Larochelle, who he faked out with a gorgeous forehand-backhand deke.
Broncos' captain Brady Wacker forced OT when he wheeled into the slot in front of traffic to throw one upstairs on Grieco late in the third.
The Broncos opened the tournament by stopping the Grizzlies 2-1 with one second remaining in regulation, while the undefeated Vipers dominated Humboldt 7-1 in their round-robin matchup Monday night.