Vipers Double Up Saints:

Vipers double up Saints

By Gord Montgomery, QMI Agency

Edmonton Sun

Thursday, April 22, 2010

VERNON, B.C. — Goodness Snakes alive, those Vipers are hard to keep up to.

The Spruce Grove Saints found the Vernon Vipers are just as deadly on home ice as they are on the road, as the B.C. champs scored two goals in the opening period and two more in each of the second and third periods to skate to a convincing 6-3 win in Game 4 of the Doyle Cup.

The win gave them a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Saints goalie Vincenzo Marozzi was the only reason this game wasn’t history after 20 minutes.

Steve Hamilton, the coach and GM of the Saints said he tossed a query at his players about what they wanted.

“My question to the guys was ‘How much longer do you want to play?’ I want to see the answer though, not hear it.”

While many expected the Saints to come out banging, it was the Vipers that took the body early, and coupled with their speed, dictated what the flow of this game was going to be.

Early in the second, on the power play, the Vipers cycled the puck like they do so well, finally setting up Mike Collins, who beat Marozzi five-hole at the 1:52 mark, nine seconds before the penalty ended.

They then rubbed salt in the wound by scoring short-handed, when Connor Jones broke away alone from centre, went to the backhand and scooted the puck under Marozzi’s pad at 7:21.

In the third, the Vipers built their lead to 5-1 before the Saints seemed to find their legs — for a short time

Hamilton praised the Vipers for their offensive abilities.

“They are a real dangerous team that creates offence far easier than we do,” he noted.

Down the hall, Vernon coach Mark Ferner was pleased for the most part, but said his club got lazy in the third period.

“The thing is, they keep coming at you,” he said of the Saints who didn’t quit but couldn’t contain the speedy Vipers.

“We got up, then started watching them a bit. We got a little lazy but you have to give them credit, they’re not rolling over and going away.”

As for Hamilton, he liked his team’s third period effort and perhaps is wondering where that’s been for the majority of the series.

“Yeah, I liked the third, but at that point it’s like putting lipstick on a pig.”