Vipers Beat Warriors To Stay Perfect:

Vipers beat Warriors to stay perfect

by Wayne Moore Sep 3, 2009

The Vernon Vipers scored three times on the power-play in propelling themselves to a 4-3 victory over the Westside Warriors Wednesday in BCHL pre-season play. The Vipers, who opened training camp four days earlier than the Warriors, were the sharper team, especially on special teams. "We haven't worked on ours at all and it kind of showed," says Warriors coach Darren Yopyk. "We gave up a few chances there when we didn't know what we were doing quite yet, but that's part of training camp and that's part of the exhibition season so those will get ironed out." After falling behind 4-1 after 40 minutes the Warriors battled back to make it interesting in the third. Veterans Grayson Downing and Quinn Gould pulled the Warriors to within a goal by the 6:41 mark of the final period. It appeared Downing may have tied it later in the period, however, his shot from a sharp angle went through the crease, hit the far post and slid away. Despite the slow start, Yopyk was pleased with how the team battled and got better as the game wore on. "The first period was our worst period, the second period I thought we played well five-on-five and the third period I thought was our best of the six periods we have played so far. It's all about getting better and I was pleased with our effort." Braden Pimm scored twice for the Vipers with Dylan Walchuk and former Warrior Bryce Kakoske adding singles. Chris Kingdom went the distance in the Warriors net, stopping 26 of 30 shots fired his way. The Vipers finished the night 3-5 on the power-play while the Warriors were 0-6. The Warriors will practice again Thursday before playing three games in three nights to conclude the pre-season schedule. "I think we'll work on our penalty killing." Yopyk expects to trim the roster to 29 or 30 before the next exhibition game Friday in Penticton. The Warriors host Penticton Saturday then Merritt Sunday afternoon before opening the regular season September 11 in Prince George.