Vipers Lap Up Langley:

This is in todays Morning Star Newspaper:

Vipers lap up Langley

By Nicole Berg - Vernon Morning Star

Published: February 02, 2010

The Vernon Vipers knew the Langley Chiefs would be a rough and tough B.C. Hockey League opponent Saturday night at Wesbild Centre.

The Chiefs, who have spent more time in the sin bin than any other team this season with 1,156 penalty minutes, tried stirring up trouble in the third period but the Snakes didn’t let that affect their game in a 5-1 victory before 1,922 fans.

Langley’s Jordan Sims knocked over Vernon’s starting goalie Blake Voth which ensued a mini line brawl. Dan Nycholat flew to Voth’s rescue and fought Sims, while Jonathan Milhouse tangled with Colten Hayes.

Milhouse held his own against the much bigger Hayes, who stood four inches taller than the Californian product. Milhouse capped off his 21st birthday in style by throwing a few decent punches and defeating Hayes in the tussle.

The Vipers (43-6-0-2) remain one point ahead of the Penticton Vees for first place in the Interior Conference. The Vees beat the Quesnel Millionaires 4-1 Saturday.

Langley (30-19-1-3) is fourth in the Coastal Conference.

The Snakes visit Powell River on Thursday to play a make-up game from Nov. 18 (power outage), and then visit the Merritt Centennials Friday. Their next home game is Tuesday, Feb. 9 when they battle the Centennials.

“We played a good full team effort tonight right from the puck drop,” said Vernon’s assistant coach Jason Williamson.

“Langley’s a pretty physically skilled team. Their goalie, Mark Friesen (former Chilliwack Bruin), played a heck of a game and held them in the game early. We stuck to our game-plan of getting as many shots on him as we could.”

Williamson was proud of his team when one of his players was in trouble.

“Voth got a bit of a bump there and our boys stood up for him when he took the hit. It’s good that our guys stand up for one another like that.”

Vernon had a chance to go up early when Langley got a penalty four minutes into the game but came up short. The Snakes did throw numerous pucks towards the soon-to-be 20-year-old Friesen but he slammed the door shut on each one, including a nice glove save on Nycholat.

The Chiefs didn’t record a shot on goal until midway through the first period. Vernon went up 1-0 on Braden Pimm’s 23rd of the year with two minutes to go in the session.

The Vipers wasted no time going up 3-0 early in the second frame on a pair of goals by Mike Collins and Connor Jones. Collins notched his 26th on the powerplay and Jones fired his 31st just 21 seconds later on a shorthanded tally that rebounded in off the goal post.

Nycholat improved the Vipers’ powerplay percentage by scoring his fifth of the season six minutes later. Vernon went 2-for-4 on the man advantage, while Langley struggled on the powerplay going 0-for-4.

Langley’s Trevor Gerling (12th) spoiled Voth’s shutout with six minutes remaining in the period, getting the Chiefs on the board.

Cole Ikkala rounded up the Vipers’ offence with his 19th with two minutes left in the period.

Said first star Ikkala: “I’ve been playing with Collins and Pimm the last few games and everything really seems to click with them. All of us got goals tonight so that felt really good. We played a simple game of just throwing as many shots on net as we could and not letting Langley’s physical side get to us. This was our second and last time playing Langley this year since they are not in our division so we don’t really know much about the coastal teams’ systems but we just come out every night and play our game as good as we can and not necessarily focus on who we’re playing, but how we’re playing.”

Added Langley’s assistant coach Barry Wolfe:

“We didn’t play a very good game. Vernon’s a strong team and play together as a unit and are highly skilled. We have been playing good as of late and we hoped to have brought that motivation to today’s game against the best team in the country, but we just couldn’t get things rolling. The last time we played Vernon they beat us 6-2 and our goaltending let us down then. Since then we’ve got two new goalies and Friesen played a pretty good game in net tonight for us as he faced a lot of shots.”

Pimm earned second star, while d-man Garrett Noonan took third with a pair of helpers.