Vipers Punch Out Warriors:

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Vipers punch out Warriors

by Don Klepp | Added 2011-01-09

Like two heavyweight fighters, the Vernon Vipers and Westside Warriors took turns punching flurries of goals. When the final bell rang, the Vipers emerged with a 6-4 victory at Vernon’s Wesbild Centre on Saturday.

The Vipers shocked the Warriors with five first period goals, but the visitors responded with four in the second period against a single Viper counter punch.

After the game, Viper coach Mark Ferner was shaking his head: “I don’t know what Darren Yopyk was telling his guys, but I ran out of things to tell my players. This Viper group doesn’t score five in a period and we sure as heck don’t let in four in 20 minutes!”

He was more accustomed to the play in the third period when the Vipers played shut down hockey and the teams registered only four shots each.

The number of goals differed from the previous night in Westside, but the pattern was similar because Friday night’s game also saw the Vipers win the first period and succumb to Warrior pressure in the second, before settling into a tight checking third period.

In this game, the onslaught started with a Darren Nowick power play goal at 5:25. The LA product placed a wrist shot over Kevin Boyle’s left shoulder from 15 feet.

Emboldened, the Vipers continued to press and 24 seconds later Adam Thompson stepped into a blistering slap shot that beat Boyle low on the stick side.

Dylan Walchuk added to the lead at 6:39, sliding in a rebound that resulted from determined efforts by John Knisley and Mike Zalewski. At that point, Darren Yopyk replaced Boyle with Cole Holowenko, who fared a bit better than Boyle, who had allowed three goals on six shots.

After an exchange of penalties at the midpoint of the period, the Vipers ended up with a 10 second man advantage and Nowick popped in a second goal with a shot identical to the first, at 10:08, just two seconds into the brief power play.

Marcus Basara completed the first period beating when he went hard to the net and converted a Kyle Murphy feed after Murphy had slipped by Isaac Berglund along the right boards.

The first period was fast and furious, with each team dishing out 15 hits. The hitting continued in the second period, but now the Warriors landed the telling blows.

At the two-minute mark, Tyler Krause tipped a point shot past Kirby Halcrow to reward the Warriors’ early dominance.

Then, two power play goals by the very active Tom Kroshus, at 6:31 and at 7:54, brought the score to 5-3 and many of the 2214 Viper faithful in attendance experienced memories of the Russian Junior team’s recent comeback versus Canada.

Mark Ferner called a timeout to calm his troops and it had the desired effect, as more of the play started to occur in the Westside end. Malcolm Lyles made the score 6-3 at the nine minute mark to reverse the trend of Warrior goals.

Kyle Singleton did manage a fourth Westside goal at 17:41, but the Vipers had a sufficiently comfortable cushion to easily close the door in the third period.

Still, the hard working Warriors impressed Viper fans and a busload of Warrior fans with their never-say-die attitude after a disastrous first period.

Game Notes:

• After returning for one game on Friday, Phil Patenaude returned to the press box after once again experiencing post-concussion symptoms. Todd Skirving and the injured Bryce Kakoske joined Patenaude.

• Affiliated player Zach Urban, called up from the Penticton Lakers’ Jr. B team, dressed but saw limited action for the Vipers.

• Alex Grieve, shaken up in Friday’s game, dressed for the Warriors but played very little. Matt Cronin and Brett Mulcahy continued to sit out because of injury.

• The teams completed their six-game regular season series with the Vipers winning four and tying one, while the Warriors managed one overtime victory.