Snakes take series stranglehold
By Kevin Mitchell - Vernon Morning Star
Published: April 06, 2011 1:00 AM
Down the road, Johnny Knisley can spin a yarn about how he dashed coast-to-coast for the biggest goal of his Junior A hockey career.
For now, the New Yorker will have to settle on a lucky bounce that gave the Vernon Vipers a 4-3 win over the Powell River Kings before 2,139 fans Monday night at the Wesbild Centre.
The Vipers took a 3-0 Fred Page Cup series strangehold into Game 4 Tuesday night. A fifth game in the B.C. Hockey League championship, if required, would go Thursday night on the Sunshine Coast.
Vernon clipped the Kings 1-0 on a late goal by captain David Robinson in Game 2 Saturday night at Hap Parker Arena in Powell River.
Knisley fired a shot from the right corner which bounced off Powell River towering defenceman Justin DaSilva’s leg and past a startled goalie Sean Maguire for Monday’s winner.
“I was just doing the forecheck along the wall and just threw it in front and (Darren) Nowick was in front there and I was trying to give him a good look, and luckily, it went off DaSilva and in,” said Knisley, of his third playoff snipe.
Knisley, named third star, feels the Vipers are bringing enough energy to claim a third straight league playoff crown.
“Our whole team is just putting in a good effort for a full 60 minutes in each game. They’re a good, hard-working team and we know that and we just have to win puck battles and races to the puck and good things will keep coming our way.”
Powell River coach Kent Lewis was smiling and shaking his head as his players boarded the bus for their West Kelowna hotel.
“It was a weird fourth goal for sure,” said Lewis. “We had a lot of chances but we just didn’t convert and that goes in. You say, ‘What the heck’ sometimes but you keep your chin up and we’ve got an opportunity to play tomorrow which not a lot of teams have and we look forward to getting a win.”
Cohen Adair gave the Kings a 1-0 lead 2:49 into the game on a wrister from the slot on the powerplay. Michael Zalewski outworked a defender for a loose puck after some good corner work by Nowick and Knisley and beat starter Michael Garteig on a powerplay wrister.
The Vipers led 2-1 after one period and were up 3-1 until midway through the second when the Kings starting taking over the play, especially down low.
First star Malcolm Lyles scored once and set up Marcus Basara with a gorgeous one-hand pass after a spectacular rush to lead the Vipers, who won their seventh straight playoff tilt.
“I saw two guys out of the corner of my eye, and I knew that they would actually stop at the net because we’ve done that probably 20 times this season so I’m glad it paid off and Bas was there to bury it,” said Lyles, a natural-born thriller.
The Vipers chased Garteig after Lyles fooled the Prince George all-star with a long, soft wrist shot from just inside the blueline with 4:50 gone in the second period. Maguire came in and saw his first minutes of the post-season.
“I saw a little opening on the goalie’s arm, a small opening,” said Lyles. “He was waiting for me to try and go corner so I was fortunate enough that he did what he did.”
Lyles figured the Kings did battle harder in the corners and while they enjoyed several screened scoring chances, the Vipers were there to block several shots in front of a solid Kirby Halcrow.
Robinson scored from Basara and Corkey, with 5:19 remaining, as the Vipers won Game 2 before 1,129 fans in Powell River. Halcrow took first star with 24 stops.
“It’s been two games now where I’ve thought we should have won, but you can’t say we were the better team because we didn’t win,” said Lewis. “We just gotta be better for 60 minutes and keep plugging.
“We need our goalie to be better, no question. That’s the first time I’ve probably yanked him all year. He knows that. Our guys are pretty optimistic; they’re not hanging their heads. That was the best group I’ve seen for this challenge. They’re in good shape and they’ve got a lot of gas so tomorrow, certainly, I expect Vernon to be better too and we’ll be better as well.”
The Kings pulled within one nine minutes after Lyles’ goal when Steven Schmidt led an aggressive three-man rush and fed Chris Williams for a gorgeous bang-bang shorthanded tally.
Powell River, who led the BCHL with 46 regular-season wins, equalized at 5:50 of the third with 42 seconds left in a powerplay with Chad Niddery finishing a sweet play involving Andrew Pettitt and Jon Jutzi.
The Kings outshot the Vipers 33-20, including a 17-6 margin in the second period. Halcrow, chosen Player of the Week, earned his 10th win of the playoffs, his biggest stop coming with 79 seconds left in the second when he did the splits to stone Brendan Forbes in tight.
Niddery, who trash talked the Vipers’ Dylan Walchuk all night, said the Kings were hardly ready to call it a year.
“You take the positives, as much as you can, out of it,” said Niddery, who along with Pettitt, is facing Vernon for a third straight year. “It’s a bad feeling to actually dominate a team for the most part and come out empty-handed, but the bounces are gonna come our way one of these days and I mean, we’ve been down in this position before so it’s nothing new to our team. It’s not like we have our heads down or anything. We’re going to come out flying tomorrow.”
Hits-of-the-night were a Brett Corkey smackdown of the Kings’ Chad Garbowsky in open ice, and a DaSilva crushing of the Vipers’ Zach McPhee against the side boards.
In Alberta, the Camrose Kodiaks shut down the visiting Spruce Grove Saints 2-0 in the Enerflex Cup. The No. 1-ranked Saints led the series 2-1 going into the fourth game Tuesday night in Camrose.
The B.C.-Alberta best-of-seven Doyle Cup series starts Friday, April 15 in B.C.
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