Benitez Stymies The Vipers:

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Benitez stymies the Vipers

by Don Klepp | Added 2010-09-25

Denver’s Ryan Benitez put on a show at the Prince George Coliseum Friday night. He stopped 44 of 45 shots to lead his Spruce Kings to a 3-1 victory over the Vipers.

Benitez, a 20-year-old from Denver, was busiest in the second period (13 shots) and third period (23 shots). His best save came in the third, as his glove hand snaked out to catch Dylan Walchuk’s hot shot from the slot.

Walchuk was snake bit in this game, hitting the cross bar with a howitzer in the second period. He had several other chances when he missed the net or had pucks deflect just wide.

With a large contingent from McBride in town to watch their local hero, Walchuk hoped to repeat his last appearance at the Coliseum, when his hat trick sunk the Spruce Kings in a 5-2 Viper win on November 6.

Fighting a trend in which the Spruce Kings had lost games because of slow starts, they came out hustling and even though the Vipers had the early territorial advantage, the Kings drew two penalties that led to goals. Chris Bodo, who had 49 goals and 48 assists in Ontario Jr. B hockey last year, scored both. The first came at 10:13, just 7 seconds after a Marcus Basara interference call.

Then, Bodo struck again at 17:08. Left alone in front of Blake Voth, he was denied by Voth’s fine pad save, but he lifted the rdebound over Voth.

Both of Bodo’s goals were set up by rangy Jujhar Khaira, who plays very well for a 16-year-old.

The Viper penalty killing, which had allowed three goals in their Tuesday loss to Merritt, became more aggressive and effective in the second period, particularly when John Knisley was assessed four penalty minutes at 6:08 of the second period.

With Malcolm Lyles already in the sin bin, Vernon was short two men for 27 seconds, but aggressive Viper penalty killing denied further scoring chances. During the remainder of Knisley’s penalties, the Vipers out shot the Spruce Kings 3-0.

The visitors carried on from there, limiting the Spruce Kings to two shots in the last 34 minutes of the game. On one of those shots, Justin Fillion converted Kyle Manlow’s pass with hard, accurate shot from the high slot at 14:50 of the third period.

Fillion’s goal restored his team’s two-goal lead two minutes after Viper defenceman Elliott Richardson had finally solved Benitez with a high point shot.

Game notes:

• The Spruce Kings posted their first win of the year.

• For the second time in six games, the Vipers have lost twice in a row, after losing back-to-back games just once in 60 games last year.

• The Vipers juggled their lines for this game, moving Darren Nowick to the top line with Dylan Walchuk and David Robinson. Marcus Basara moved from that line to skate with Kyle Murphy and Bryce Kakoske. The Knisley line remained intact, and Trevor Fitzgerald centred Gus Correale and Todd Skirving.

• The Vipers rang iron three times in the contest.

• Malcolm Lyles and Adam Thompson returned from injury, so Philip Patenaude and Taylor Love did not dress.

• The Spruce Kings’ Trevor Esau, Riley Spraggs, and Faiz Khan, all of whom played for the Revelstoke Grizzlies last year, sat out with injuries.