Vipers Repeat As National Champions!

This is posted on the Vipers website:

Vipers repeat as national champions!

by Don Klepp | Added 2010-05-09

Dauphin’s Credit Union Place was sold out and festooned with RBC towels. The home town Kings were undefeated at this year’s RBC Cup tournament. The crowd of 2260 (Minus about 30 Viper fans) buzzed with excitement at the prospect of a national championship.

What they got was an old fashioned whupping as the Vernon Vipers defeated the Kings 8-1.

It didn’t start out as a one-sided affair, with just one goal scored in the first period. Cory Kane sprinted into the King zone and unleashed a hard low shot from the right faceoff circle. He beat Joe Caligiuri on the stick side at 14:28.

Despite the tight score line, both teams had chances in the opening 20 minutes. Garrett Noonan had a deflected shot hit the goal post and Kellen Jones also hit iron with Caligiuri beaten. However, the veteran WHL goalie made two excellent saves on Dylan Walchuk.

At the other end, Graeme Gordon made a superb save on Shane Luke, sliding across to deny the King sniper who had notched 6 goals in the first 5 games of the tournament.

With the score still 1-0, Gordon brought the Viper fans to their feet with two sensational saves at about the six-minute mark in the second period. Soon after, the Vipers used their quick strike offence to fashion three goals in 48 seconds.

The Viper coaches had noticed a tendency of the Kings’ defencemen to pinch when the King forwards attempted dump-ins. To counteract the move, the Viper defencemen were told to quickly go D to D and then hit the strong side winger. The strategy worked to perfection as the Vipers caught the Kings for a series of two-on-one breaks.

First, Jonathan Milhouse and Dylan Walchuk picked up a neutral zone turnover and immediately swung to the attack. Milhouse found Walchuk on the left wing and the speedy rookie beat Caligiuri short side at 6:28.

Next, the Jones twins came in with one defender back. Connor’s shot went up off Caligiuri and Kellen batted a backhand out of midair at 7:07. Just 9 seconds later, off the ensuing faceoff, Cole Ikkala beat Caligiuri off the right wing after Kevin Kraus had worked the strong side pass to perfection.

The Kings narrowed the gap to 4-1 when, on the power play, Bryce Lamb fired a low shot that found its way through a crowd that had gathered in front of Graeme Gordon.

However, rookies Dylan Walchuk and Patrick McGillis restored the four goal lead at 12:56. McGillis started the play in his own end by banking a pass past a pinching defenceman. Walchuk took the pass at full speed, beat a King defenceman just over the blue line, and went in on Caligiuri. His low shot was stopped, but McGillis was there to bang in the rebound.

The Vipers added three more in the third period to complete the rout. At 3:32, after a strong forecheck by the Jones line, Sahir Gill tipped an Adam Thompson point shot past Caligiuri. Power play goals by Kellen Jones and Garrett Noonan completed the scoring.

Kellen finished as the RBC top scorer with 5 goals and 4 assists for 9 points.

The Viper win completed a kind of symmetry in this year’s RBC championship tournament. The Kings started a run of five straight wins by defeating the Vipers 6-5 in their opening game on May 1. The Vipers finished the tourney with five straight wins including today’s demolition of the Kings.

They started the season ranked no. 1 in Canada (a position held until January 11) and they finished as the best team in Canadian Junior “A” hockey. Along the playoff trail, the no. 2 ranked Vipers knocked off the following teams ranked in the top 20 in the final rankings on February 22:
• No. 1 ranked Spruce Grove Saints
• No. 3 ranked Penticton Vees
• No. 5 ranked Dauphin Kings
• No. 8 ranked Brockville Braves
• No. 10 ranked Oakville Blades

Ironically, the toughest test for the Vipers in this year’s playoff run was provided by the Powell River Kings, who were not ranked in the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) final rankings.

In the history of Junior “A” hockey championships, only two previous teams have won back-to-back titles. The Prince Albert Raiders won in 1981 and 1982, and the Vernon Lakers won in 1990 and 1991 when the title was known as the Centennial Cup.