Vipers Lethargic, But Win:

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Vipers lethargic, but win

by Don Klepp | Added 2010-05-04

The Vernon Vipers played just well enough to win on Tuesday at the RBC Cup in Dauphin, Manitoba. A little luck helped, too. A strange bounce created the winning goal as they defeated the winless Oakville Blades, 5-3.

With the Vipers ahead 3-1 in the second period, Curtis Gedig stepped over the red line and fired the puck off the glass midway between the Oakville blue line and the back boards. The puck hit a glass partition and caromed through a startled Daniel Savelli’s pads. The Blade goaltender seemed to have lost focus on the play.

Perhaps feeling that the game was essentially won, the Vipers relaxed somewhat in the third period, and the desperate Blades turned on the pressure. The tone was set right from the opening faceoff of the final frame – the Blades won the draw, dumped the puck in, and used their size to dominate down low.

As a consequence, the Blades outshot the Vipers 12-6 in the period and created 9 scoring chances while the Vipers managed just 3. All that pressure paid off with two goals. Ryan Murphy’s conversion of a Mark Bennett rebound came at 7:47 with the Blades on the power play. Then, at 13:05 another fierce Oakville forecheck allowed Mark McGowan to snap a puck past Graeme Gordon at 13:05.

The pressure continued, but Gordon held the fort in the last five minutes as the Blades buzzed around the Viper net. Lack lustre defending meant that the Blades had several second chance shots, but Gordon’s butterfly style protected the bottom third of the net and his active glove took care of a couple of higher shots.

Jonathan Milhouse put the game on ice with an empty netter after Kellen Jones stole the opuck behind the Oakville net.

Earlier in the game, the Vipers built a 3-0 lead after weathering some Oakville pressure in the first half of the first period. At the 10-minute mark, the shots favoured the Blades, 4-2, but the Vipers recorded the remaining 8 shots in the period.

Two goals resulted from the Vipers’ improved play. Curtis Gedig, the best Viper in this game, streaked down the left wing, from corner to corner. He left the puck deep in the Oakville corner and retreated to the left point. Eventually, the puck came to him there, and he ripped a shot off Sahir Gill’s skate, past Daniel Savelli at 14:32.

Dan Nycholat’s power play point shot beat a screened Savelli at 16:15. The Vipers counted another power play goal at 4:30 of the second period. Mike Collins’s wrister deflected off Cole Ikkala at 4:34 of the second period.

Michael Ingoldsby was the trailer on a Josh Ranalli rush and the Oakville captain converted a rebound from Ranalli’s shot at 5:15.

The three-goal lead was restored by Gedig’s immaculate-deception marker at 13:25, a lead that would not be totally overcome despite Oakville’s best effort of the RBC in the remaining 27 minutes.

Game notes:

• The Vipers’ 22 shots was their lowest total in 89 games this year.

• Connor Jones, who is still recovering from an undisclosed injury, missed his third straight game. With the Vipers now guaranteed a Saturday semi-final spot, expect the Vipers to allow Connor to heal until then.

• The Vipers have now scored at least one power play goal in each RBC game.

• Jonathan’s 3 goals and 2 assists tie him with Dauphin’s Shane Luke and
Brockville’s Zak Zaremba and Scott Arnold for the RBC points scoring lead. Luke’s 4 goals give him the goal scoring lead.