This is on the Morning Star web site:Published: May 07, 2009
VICTORIA – It was a wild and wacky dress rehearsal of sorts as the Vernon Vipers stopped the Kingston Voyageurs 8-5 Thursday afternoon in Royal Bank Cup round-robin play before 1,678 fans at Bear Mountain Arena.
The Vipers, who rested four regulars, including all-star goalie Andrew Hammond, finished preliminary action at 4-0 and meet the Vees again today (2 p.m.) in the national junior A hockey tournament semifinal.
The host Victoria Grizzlies, who bowed 5-4 in overtime to the Vipers Tuesday night, will face the Humboldt Broncos in tonight’s other semi. The final goes Sunday (4:30 p.m.)
Twins Connor and Kellen Jones each recorded their third goals of the RBC, while Sahir Gill, Kory Roy, Stevie Weinstein, Kory Kane, Kyle Bigos and Rob Short also scored for Vernon, who won their ninth straight playoff tilt. Graeme Gordon gave Hammond his first game off in two months.
With nothing really on the line, Vipers’ head coach Mark Ferner decided to rest defencemen Kevin Kraus and Cameron Brodie, while Roy subbed in for Bryce Kakoske on a line with Ryan Santana and Short.
That left the Vipers with defensive pairings of Mike Leidl and Enderby’s Nick Amies, Bigos and Weinstein, and Cody Ikkala and Adam Thompson.
“I haven’t play much in the playoffs, and when I got in I just tried to make the most of it,” said Weinstein. “It’s part of my game trying to be an offensive defenceman. We definitely wanted to get the win because we play the same team tomorrow. We wanted to send a message to them that we’re not going to go down.
“Every mistake gets magnified, but we’re a real confident group and I think we’ll get the job done. Me, Gordo (Gordon), Nick Amies, he stepped up big on the PK, and Royzer (Roy) also getting a goal, it was good all of us contributing.”
Said Kingston head coach Evan Robinson, whose team briefly held a 5-3 lead: “We can compete with those guys, but we’ve got to stay out of the box. It’s been our Achilles heel all tournament. I don’t know if it’s just being mentally tired, but there’s no excuse. We came here to play hockey, not for a holiday, and it seems like we’re in holiday mode with some of our penalties.”
Viper head coach Mark Ferner praised his reserves, and knows his club will be better Friday.
“You go into every game wanting to win,” said Ferner. “Knowing we’re going to play this hockey team tomorrow, we wanted to establish something. I don’t think either team had their best game, and we didn’t want to get into the last shot wins, but we’re certainly happy we got the victory. But am I happy with the way we played? No.”
Gill got the Vipers started with his second of the tourney on an early powerplay, beating netminder Shawn Sirman clean with a point shot.
The Vees replied 22 seconds later on the next shift when Dustin Walsh banged home a loose puck, their first shot of the game, in front of Gordon at 2:32.
The fast-paced, wide-open play continued as Connor Jones collected a loose puck in the slot and placed a shot on net that appeared to deflect off Brock Higgs at 4:49.
The Vees responded again when Jeff Blackburn cashed in the rebound off Jacob Chiblow’s point shot at 5:43.
A good dump-in by Short was collected by Roy in corner, who threw it on net from the sidewall and had it deflect off a Vees’ defender at 16:07.
The Vees pulled even once again in the second as Walsh corralled a point shot off the end boards and buried it at the side of the net before Gordon could get across at 4:18.
Craig Laliberte then got a stick on a Justin Levac shot, catching Gordon out of position, to give Kingston their first lead on the powerplay 28 seconds later.
Vernon started taking penalties in the second frame and it cost them. Gordon made a stellar stretch toe save to rob Adam McAllister at the side of the net, but no Vipers were around to stop him from roofing the rebound at 9:42.
The Vipers recovered, firing three straight goals to jump back in the lead. Kellen used a good stick to create a neutral-zone turnover and went in 2-on-1 with Gill. Electing to shoot, Kellen wired it low stick side.
Weinstein then grabbed a loose puck in the slot and sidestepped to get around traffic and fired a sneaky wrister top shelf at 12:41. Vernon clawed back in front on the powerplay as Weinstein fed Kane for a one-timer at 13:51.
The Vipers, who have already shown they can protect leads here, demonstrated an ability to salvage victory with their comeback OT win over Victoria.
Vipers’ rookie forward Cole Ikkala 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.
VICTORIA – It was a wild and wacky dress rehearsal of sorts as the Vernon Vipers stopped the Kingston Voyageurs 8-5 Thursday afternoon in Royal Bank Cup round-robin play before 1,678 fans at Bear Mountain Arena.
The Vipers, who rested four regulars, including all-star goalie Andrew Hammond, finished preliminary action at 4-0 and meet the Vees again today (2 p.m.) in the national junior A hockey tournament semifinal.
The host Victoria Grizzlies, who bowed 5-4 in overtime to the Vipers Tuesday night, will face the Humboldt Broncos in tonight’s other semi. The final goes Sunday (4:30 p.m.)
Twins Connor and Kellen Jones each recorded their third goals of the RBC, while Sahir Gill, Kory Roy, Stevie Weinstein, Kory Kane, Kyle Bigos and Rob Short also scored for Vernon, who won their ninth straight playoff tilt. Graeme Gordon gave Hammond his first game off in two months.
With nothing really on the line, Vipers’ head coach Mark Ferner decided to rest defencemen Kevin Kraus and Cameron Brodie, while Roy subbed in for Bryce Kakoske on a line with Ryan Santana and Short.
That left the Vipers with defensive pairings of Mike Leidl and Enderby’s Nick Amies, Bigos and Weinstein, and Cody Ikkala and Adam Thompson.
“I haven’t play much in the playoffs, and when I got in I just tried to make the most of it,” said Weinstein. “It’s part of my game trying to be an offensive defenceman. We definitely wanted to get the win because we play the same team tomorrow. We wanted to send a message to them that we’re not going to go down.
“Every mistake gets magnified, but we’re a real confident group and I think we’ll get the job done. Me, Gordo (Gordon), Nick Amies, he stepped up big on the PK, and Royzer (Roy) also getting a goal, it was good all of us contributing.”
Said Kingston head coach Evan Robinson, whose team briefly held a 5-3 lead: “We can compete with those guys, but we’ve got to stay out of the box. It’s been our Achilles heel all tournament. I don’t know if it’s just being mentally tired, but there’s no excuse. We came here to play hockey, not for a holiday, and it seems like we’re in holiday mode with some of our penalties.”
Viper head coach Mark Ferner praised his reserves, and knows his club will be better Friday.
“You go into every game wanting to win,” said Ferner. “Knowing we’re going to play this hockey team tomorrow, we wanted to establish something. I don’t think either team had their best game, and we didn’t want to get into the last shot wins, but we’re certainly happy we got the victory. But am I happy with the way we played? No.”
Gill got the Vipers started with his second of the tourney on an early powerplay, beating netminder Shawn Sirman clean with a point shot.
The Vees replied 22 seconds later on the next shift when Dustin Walsh banged home a loose puck, their first shot of the game, in front of Gordon at 2:32.
The fast-paced, wide-open play continued as Connor Jones collected a loose puck in the slot and placed a shot on net that appeared to deflect off Brock Higgs at 4:49.
The Vees responded again when Jeff Blackburn cashed in the rebound off Jacob Chiblow’s point shot at 5:43.
A good dump-in by Short was collected by Roy in corner, who threw it on net from the sidewall and had it deflect off a Vees’ defender at 16:07.
The Vees pulled even once again in the second as Walsh corralled a point shot off the end boards and buried it at the side of the net before Gordon could get across at 4:18.
Craig Laliberte then got a stick on a Justin Levac shot, catching Gordon out of position, to give Kingston their first lead on the powerplay 28 seconds later.
Vernon started taking penalties in the second frame and it cost them. Gordon made a stellar stretch toe save to rob Adam McAllister at the side of the net, but no Vipers were around to stop him from roofing the rebound at 9:42.
The Vipers recovered, firing three straight goals to jump back in the lead. Kellen used a good stick to create a neutral-zone turnover and went in 2-on-1 with Gill. Electing to shoot, Kellen wired it low stick side.
Weinstein then grabbed a loose puck in the slot and sidestepped to get around traffic and fired a sneaky wrister top shelf at 12:41. Vernon clawed back in front on the powerplay as Weinstein fed Kane for a one-timer at 13:51.
The Vipers, who have already shown they can protect leads here, demonstrated an ability to salvage victory with their comeback OT win over Victoria.
Vipers’ rookie forward Cole Ikkala 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.
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