Kings Come To Vipers’ Court:

This is in todays Morning Star Newspaper:

Kings come to Vipers’ court

Published: January 18, 2011

The Vernon Vipers believe they are a different team than the one that lost to the Powell River Kings in mid-November.

It is difficult to argue the numbers. After that 5-2 loss at Hap Parker Arena, the Snakes went on a tear, recording points in 15 straight B.C. Hockey League games. They were a point out of first place in the Interior Conference heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Merritt Centennials at Wesbild Centre.

Vernon, ranked No. 18 in this week’s CJHL national poll, will have to be at their best when they entertain the No. 4 Kings (33-6-3-2), Friday night at Wesbild.

“It’s always going to be a good game between us. They’ve played us in the league final the last two years. We’re going to have to be rolling on all cylinders to beat them,” said Viper defenceman Stevie Weinstein.

“We have definitely made a huge leap from the beginning of the year to where we are now. We just have to keep progressing.”

Vernon head coach Mark Ferner wasn’t about to look past the Cents (17-20-0-6), a team that has forced the Vipers to overtime in each of their three previous meetings, and won two.

“They’re (games) all pretty important now. We’re not only in the hunt for first place, we’re trying to hold onto where we’re at,” said Ferner.

Of the Kings, he added: “We’re playing a team that is playing well right now and they’re going to come out and work hard and we have to try and match that.”

Saturday night in Prince George, the Vipers made it a four-point weekend as they grounded the host Spruce Kings 4-1 before 450 fans at the Coliseum (Vernon stopped the Quesnel Millionaires 4-3 Friday at The Vault).

Viper rookie Marcus Basara opened the scoring with his 11th goal at 3:51 of the first period. After Vernon netminder Kirby Halcrow stopped former Viper Todd Skirving’s scoring attempt, the Snakes quickly transitioned the puck out wide to Basara, who fired over Cameron Large’s glove.

Skirving, who was traded to Prince George as part of the deal for defenceman Ryan Renz, was surprised by the trade but is making the most of his increased playing time with the Sprucies. He earned third star recognition in his debut last week.

“No one usually is expecting to be traded. Anything can happen at trade deadline. Sometimes it’s for the worse, sometimes it’s for the better. But you just have to accept it and move on, and make the best of it,” said the amiable Thunder Bay product.

Skirving, who was only wearing a hoody as he stepped into -20C temperatures outside the Prince George airport, knows the Spruce Kings rebuilding project will be difficult, but he’s happy to be part of it.

“I think we’re heading in the right direction. Obviously the last few games we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but... we can take a lot of positives away from the game. We held the team to under 30 shots, we played pretty well defensively.”

Connor Tiechko (ninth goal) responded for the Spruce Kings on a powerplay at 11:43, but Viper captain Dave Robinson (20th), attempting a pass to Kyle Murphy, redirected a puck off a Prince George defender to beat Large (24 saves) two minutes later.

Weinstein (second star) and Basara earned assists.

“It wasn’t our best effort,” said Weinstein, of the weekend action. “We got away from our game-plan against Quesnel. Against Prince George, we picked it up in the second and third periods.”

The Los Angeles native noted the recent addition of Renz has been a welcome one to a depleted Viper blueline.

“I’m probably in the best shape of my life right now,” grinned Weinstein.

“It’s nice having six dee again. It’s giving some of our other players some rest. We’re going to need every body possible late in the season and going into playoffs.”

Goals by Pat McGillis (eighth), burying the rebound off a Weinstein point shot, and Robinson (21st), converting a pass from Darren Nowick for an empty-netter, completed the Viper attack.

“We were good enough to win. We weren’t great. We didn’t have great support on the puck. We were leaving the zone early, we were cheating,” said Ferner.

SNAKE BITES: Colin Minardi of the North Okanagan Knights collected a goal as the Okanagan All-Stars fell 10-3 to the Kootenay All-Stars in the KIJHL All-Star Game Saturday at Fernie Memorial Arena. In Friday’s Prospects Game, the Knights’ Eric Chore scored once and Shawn Holliday chipped in with two assists as Okanagan outlasted Kootenay 6-4.