This is in todays Morning Star Newspaper:DeJersey jumpstarts SilverBacks
By Kevin Mitchell - Vernon Morning Star
Published: March 20, 2011
Fourth-liner Paul DeJersey’s name didn’t come up at all in any pre-series Hot Stove Leagues.
The 18-year-old West Vancouver product made a name for himself Friday night, scoring once and setting up the winner as the Salmon Arm SilverBacks bounced the Vernon Vipers 5-3 before 2,215 fans at Wesbild Centre.
Game 2 in the B.C. Hockey League Interior Conference best-of-seven final went Saturday night in Vernon. Games 3 and 4 go Monday and Tuesday night at the Sunwave Centre in Salmon Arm.
DeJersey scored seven regular-season goals in 33 games for the Gorillas after getting one in 10 games with the Coquitlam Express. He has four snipes and seven points in 10 playoff tilts.
The Vipers meanwhile, sorely missed their fourth-line energy man and leading playoff pointgetter Colton Sparrow, sidelined with a concussion.
Lumby product Jayson Reardon, who buried a 200-foot empty-netter with 35 seconds remaining, said DeJersey has been clutch for a while now.
“I think that’s his fourth game-winner,” said Reardon, a three-year veteran d-man. “Coming into the end of the regular season, he had some good goals, He picked up probably four in his last six games. So he’s starting to play good and that’s good for our team. When your fourth line’s going and giving you secondary scoring, it’s pretty hard not to win a game.”
DeJersey, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound right winger, credits his teammates for his newfound success.
“I’ve been getting some good passes and I’ve just been bearing down when it matters,” said DeJersey, named first star. “It was a gritty road win. It’s never gonna be easy especially playing against the defending champs. We definitely showed some character and it was a good win.”
DeJersey carried the puck inside the Viper zone, paused to look around, with no check in sight, and found league scoring champion Mike Hammond on the left side for a gorgeous one-timer, putting the SilverBacks up 4-2 late in the second period.
Just 2:02 earlier, DeJersey fought off a hook, and with a delayed penalty oncoming, battled hard to get a shot away and beat Kirby Halcrow from the right side.
“Our fourth line is very skilled this year and when we get our chances, we know we’ve gotta bear down and put some scoring opportunities in,” said DeJersey, who plays alongside Devin Muller and Dustin Cave. “My linemates and I have been been kind of able to score some goals frequently enough and we’ve scored some big goals and this is another big one for our line.”
And while neither team showed anything close to their best, DeJersey, who believes the Gorillas have the potential to go on a long playoff run, knew Game 2 was going to be tougher.
“They’re a good team and not one win is gonna be easy. We gotta come out just as hard tomorrow because they’re not going to take their foot off the pedal.”
The Conference champion Vipers, while outshooting third-place Salmon Arm, who dominated the regular-season series with just one loss, strayed from their normal template.
“Give Salmon Arm credit and they came in here and did what they had to do, and this is no disrespect to them one bit, but we weren’t very good,” said Viper head coach Mark Ferner, who said a few veterans have to be better.
“We did a lot of things that we normally don’t do. Our effort wasn’t there, our puck pursuit wasn’t there, it’s almost like we played their game and we’re not going to beat them playing like that.
“They’re good and they’re talented. For whatever reason, we just didn’t play the type of game we know we need to play to be successful.”
Gervais opened the scoring at 3:20 of the first period on a powerplay backhander, while John Knisley equalized with 69 seconds left in the period, tapping in a loose puck just over the line after Darren Nowick’s shot was bobbled by goalie Kris Moore, the SilverBacks’ MVP in their semifinal series win over Penticton.
eardon. “We struggled in the first but I thought it was a good road period being 1-1 and then going into the second I thought it evened out a little bit more, but we had the lead going in. In the third period, they had more push back again. They’re a hard team to play against. They pressure hard, they skate well, they’re a good team like that. We knew what we were coming up against.”
Patrick McGillis, chosen third star, tied it when he redirected Dylan Walchuk’s backhand from a sharp angle at 9:28.
Two minutes after DeJersey and Hammond’s quick strikes, the Vipers pulled within one when Kyle Murphy went hard to the net and converted a sweet pass by captain David Robinson, who had taken a feed from Malcolm Lyles.
“I thought we played alright at times,” said Robinson. We outshot them again, but they’re a team that is very offensively skilled and they capitalized on their chances. We’ve gotta stress that we’ve gotta play a full 60 minutes or else they’ll put one in the back of the net so we gotta come better prepared tomorrow. He (Ferner) says the strength of our team is our team so we need every guy going so I’m sure we’ll come back with a better effort tomorrow night.”
The league, for the first time in history, used a two-referee system with Brandon Liefke and Grant Tyson. Vernon was 1-for-6 on the powerplay and Salmon Arm 1-for-3.
No comments:
Post a Comment