Vernon Will Miss The Jones Twins:

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Vernon will miss the Jones twins

by Don Klepp Added 2010-05-25

At roughly 5’9 and 165 pounds each, Kellen and Connor Jones are usually among the smaller players on the ice, but they will leave a huge hole to fill when they depart for Quinnipiac this fall.

“They’re just special,” says Coach Mark Ferner, “they have all this speed and skill, but they work like demons and go to all the hard areas. The other Vipers and we coaches have been better because they’ve been on the team. We’ll get other good players here, other exciting players, but I doubt that we’ll ever see anything quite like them again.”

One of the question marks about the twins is how well each would play without the other. That issue was raised, for example, when Kellen’s cracked collar bone forced him to miss 10 games early in the 2008-09 season and Connor had just 7 points in that span.

However, that issue was surely laid to rest this year. When Kellen missed 10 games in the middle of the season with a broken jaw, Connor registered 22 points while playing with a variety of wingers. Kellen says, “When I was out of action, I was looking at Connor and thinking ‘who is this guy? Why are we playing together? He should be playing in a higher league or something.”

Then, Connor was injured for the most of this year’s RBC tournament. All Kellen did was lead his team in goals (5) and tie for the tournament lead in scoring (9 points).

The incident when Kellen’s jaw was broken illustrated how tough these guys are. Instead of lying on the ice squirming and crying out (like Spruce Grove’s Tyler Hart when hit in the jaw by a Kevin Kraus shot in game 2 in Spruce Grove), Kellen quickly picked himself up and roared to the bench, shedding equipment as he went.

Connor took pain tolerance to a new level as well. He suffered a severe ankle sprain early in the Spruce Grove series, but kept on playing. He played a large role in the Vipers’ 7-3 win in the 7th game of that series, scoring twice and setting up Kellen’s winner. He admits that “yeah, I was basically playing on one leg for the last few games, but Kellen and Giller played phenomenal.”

They were fortunate to not hurt each other in an incident in the final game of the RBC. They crashed into one another, both players going hard to the ice. As they picked themselves up and made their way to the bench, the competitive chirping started, as it often does when they don’t meet their own high standards.

And that’s when it started to get funny, as the Vipers on the bench took sides. Connor says, “On the bench everybody started chirping too, and even the Dauphin guys got into it. I said, ‘come on guys, I’m just trying to walk here!”

Here’s how Connor describes the actual collision: “Kel made a good move, but I was watching him, so he could’ve made another move and gone around me. Then he got mad at me because he didn’t make that extra move.”

Kellen’s version is a little different: “I guess I should have known that he had a bad ankle and he was just standing there. All I know is that I rocked him!”

As their minor hockey careers have progressed, the twins have taken turns in the sniper and passer roles. With the Vipers, however, Connor has scored more (119 goals and 167 assists in 244 games) and Kellen has set up more goals (72 goals and 185 assists in 239 games).

Kellen explains that “when we started playing with Hunter Bishop in our first year, that guy could shoot the puck so I just fed him and Connor.” Connor concurs. “Kellen is a playmaker. If you get open, he gets you the puck, no matter what. Boy, I’ve been lucky; he’s my brother, my best friend, and the best passer.”

Role reversals were evident during the crucial semi-final win over Brockville in this year’s RBC tournament. With the score deadlocked at 0-0 halfway through the third period, Kellen fed Connor at centre. Seeing that Kellen was boxed out by two defenders, Connor took the puck through the remaining Braves, and scored a beauty for the go-ahead goal. Six minutes later, they engineered a sensational insurance goal on a two-on-one rush. At high speed, Connor veered to the left and zipped a perfect feed to Kellen in the high slot. Kellen didn’t break stride as he fired a one-timer off the inside of the right goal post.

This truly sensational goal resulted from constant practice, says Kellen. “You don’t know how many times we’ve messed up that play in practice. We try it all the time. I got my first BCHL goal that way, against Penticton when I was 16, and it’s worked only a couple of times since.” Connor adds, “That’s because I usually make a poor pass. But in the Brockville game, I had no choice. I couldn’t pivot on my bad ankle, so I passed it and Kellen sniped!”

Kellen says that he’s been trying to shoot the puck more during the last couple of years, but “it’s hard to get out of the passing habit.” His shot was working during the RBC, as his 5 goals came from a variety of angles and situations.

Both players are ferocious fore checkers, with Kellen perhaps holding an edge in that department. He has an uncanny knack of stripping the puck from defencemen when they think they’re about to clear the zone. Connor believes that “sometimes guys underestimate Kellen. He either lifts their stick or he runs them over. He’s a tricky little guy.”

Their competitive nature stems from their parents and their grandfathers. Gordon Casey, their mother’s father, played for the Notre Dame Hounds in his day. Both Terry Jones Sr. and Terry Jones Jr. also have played hockey at a very high level. In 1963, Terry Sr. was a high draft choice of the New York Rangers and he played several years of pro hockey. His son won a Memorial Cup with Portland in 1983 before going on to the University of Calgary, to the Canadian National team, and to Germany as a player-coach. He has coached the Beaver Valley Nitehawks for the past several years.

The twins’ mother Loretta may be the most competitive person in the family. Her athleticism was put to the test when her sons were home for Christmas this year. After recently learning how to skate, she donned the goal pads and challenged Connor and Kellen to score on her. Each participant has a slightly different view of what happened:
Mom: “I put the pressure on them, with money on the line, and I did stop some pucks.”
Connor: “Well, we love her very much and I scored on the first five shots and then felt
really bad.”
Kellen: “My mom out-battled me out there and I have to be honest. I wasn’t ready to go.”

Let’s give Connor the last word: “The important thing is that we get that competitive fire from our parents and our grandparents. They’re special people … we owe everything to them.”