McGillis Anchors Viper Win:

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McGillis anchors Viper win

by Don Klepp | Added 2011-01-22

A strong second period by Patrick McGillis led the Vernon Vipers to a 6-4 win over the Coquitlam Express in Vernon on Saturday.

McGillis scored twice and assisted on Darren Nowick’s power play goal in a four-goal outburst by the Vipers in the middle frame.

The Express, who have played 16 games when they’ve surrendered five or more goals in a contest, started brightly in this game. Michael Krgovich scored at 3:16 of the first period when he stripped Adam Thompson deep in the Viper zone and showed exemplary patience before beating Blake Voth low glove side.

Colton Sparrow got that back with his first BCHL goal at 8:04. Going hard to the net, collected a rebound from a Brett Corkey shot and backhanded it past Khaleed Devji.

The two goals enlivened an otherwise lacklustre first period. Both teams were coming off emotional wins the previous evening, when the Vipers defeated Powell River and the Express surprised Penticton.

There wasn’t a whole lot of defence in the second period. Darren Nowick got the ball rolling at 6:41 when he found a puck in traffic and fired a 20-footer that entered the left side of the cage while Devji was stuck at the right post.

After assisting on the Nowick goal, McGillis scored a pair of fine unassisted tallies. McGillis picked up the puck outside the Express blue line and bought time while he waited for Aaron Hadley to get back onside.

At 8:16 he fired against the grain from the right wing and beat Devji to the far side.

At 13:07 he excited the crowd of 1716 with another fine solo effort. This time he steamed down the left wing. As he entered the left faceoff circle in the Coquitlam end, he veered left and wired a wrist shot over Devji’s left shoulder.

In between the McGillis goals, Jason Grecica registered a strange goal when he shot from the back boards. The puck hit Blake Voth in the back, bounced up to Voth’s helmet and the trickled down into the net.

David Robinson capped the second period with a power play goal at 18:50. He tapped in Kyle Murphy’s inch perfect pass at the goal mouth.

With the score 5-2 well into the third period, it looked like the Vipers were home and dry. However, Massimo Lamacchia had other ideas. He scored at 12:55 and 18:37 to make matters interesting.

Lamacchia’s first goal came during a power play when the Express outmanned the Vipers down low. The second was a carbon copy of Jason Grecica’s bank shot. Lamacchia was behind the net and to Blake Voth’s right. Seeing that Voth had turned his head to the left, Lamacchia quickly fired the puck off the back of Voth’s right shoulder.

Now, the Express attacked with a will, but Blake Voth stood his ground, and David Robinson let the air out of the balloon with an empty netter at 19:24.

A rather tame affair at times, the game had few hits. Still, David Robinson and Trevor Fitzgerald each went woozy to the bench after being crunched by Matt Hutchinson.

Also, an entanglement in the Viper zone in the first period resulted in Garrick Perry being stretchered out of the building. No word was available about the exact nature of his injury.

The score could well have been higher in this game. Several Express deflections narrowly missed the Viper net. Also, Bryce Kakoske, Marcus Basara, Dane Muench, and Trevor Fitzgerald each hit iron behind Khaleed Devji.