Mellor Sinks Vipers In Overtime:

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Mellor sinks Vipers in overtime

by Don Klepp | Added 2010-10-02

Sam Mellor, the BCHL’s leading scorer, scored with 21 seconds remaining in the second overtime to give his home town Trail Smoke Eaters a 3-2 win over the Vipers.

During the three on three section of overtime, Graeme Strukoff vacuumed a loose puck in the Viper zone and played Mellor into open space. Mellor froze goalie Blake Voth and he deposited a backhand into the open net for his 13th goal in 11 games.

The dramatic goal capped an exciting game that had a little bit of everything, including a penalty shot that had to be re-taken.

Thirty-two seconds into the second overtime, referee Andrew Guest assessed the Vipers’ Malcolm Lyles a penalty for goaltender interference, even though replays showed that Lyles had been pushed into goalie Kiefer Smiley.

The Smoke Eaters selected Travis St. Denis to take the shot. He out waited Blake Voth at the goal mouth and scored, while the Vipers protested that St. Denis was ineligible because he had not been on the ice when the penalty was assessed.

The referee waved off the goal, saying that he was on his way to hear the Vipers’ argument while St. Denis was on the move. He then allowed St. Denis to take the shot again, admitting that he didn’t know which three Smoke Eaters had been on the ice.

On the second attempt, Blake Voth foiled St. Denis.

In the two overtime periods, the Vipers had the edge in scoring chances (10-6) and shots (9-7), but both goalies were brilliant.

The game went to overtime because of John Knisley’s re-direct of Aaron Hadley’s pass at 8:44 of the third period. In that period, the Vipers had much of the play, but were repeatedly stymied by Smiley.

The teams had battled through a scoreless first period. The play was wide open at times, as both teams moved the puck crisply. A key feature of the period was aggressive penalty killing by the Vipers, who denied the Smokies on two 5 on 3 power plays.

The Viper penalty killing came to the fore again in the second period as Dylan Walchuk opened the scoring with a short handed goal. He forced a turnover at the Trail blue line and fed Trevor Fitzgerald, who drew the lone Trail defender to him and slipped the puck back to Walchuk. At 9:46, Walchuk flicked a backhand past Smiley.

Trail equalized on a fine play by Graeme Strukoff. On the power play, Strukoff blocked a high clearing attempt and bulled his way toward the Viper goal. His rising shot went over Voth’s right shoulder into the top corner.

Trail went ahead at 15:22 following a Viper turnover at the Trail blue line. Steve Weinstein pinched, but had the puck bounce over his stick. Steve Oursov headmanned to Dylan Tappe, who intimated a pass to Oursov in the Viper zone, but instead shot over Voth’s glove hand.

Two highlight reel saves, one by each goaltender, kept their respective teams in the game.

As the second period drew to a close, Scott Jacklin found himself one-on-one with Voth. Jacklin swept across the goal crease and went to the backhand, but Voth stayed with him.

Late in the third, with the game tied, John Knisley and Mike Zalewski broke into the Trail zone with one defender back. Knisley’s pin point pass was deflected by Zalewski at the goalmouth, but Smiley stacked the pads and blocked the rising shot.

The final shot total was 48-37, in favour of the Vipers. They went 0 for 4 on the power play, while the Smoke Eaters converted one of six opportunities with the extra man.