Lumber Kings stump Vipers
Milley scores twice, Dupuis stops 40 shots in win
By Chris O'Leary, Special to The Journal, edmontonjournal.com May 8, 2011
CAMROSE — For the first time in three years, the Vernon Vipers have been the ones who were snakebit.
The two-time RBC Cup champions were stunned by the Pembroke Lumber Kings on Sunday night, dropping a 2-0 decision in the Canadian junior A championship game in Camrose.
Jonathan Milley broke open a 50-plus minute scoreless affair, and then added an empty-net goal with 14.5 seconds left to play. Francis Dupuis made 40 saves for the shutout, while Kirby Halcrow stopped 27 shots for the Vipers.
It’s the Lumber Kings’ first national Junior A championship. The club came to Camrose representing the Central Junior Hockey League. It brought home silver medals from the tournament in 1973 and 1977.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” Milley said. “It’s our 92nd game of the year and everyone stuck together. We had to battle through some injuries, some adversity. Everyone played a great tournament, everyone battled through and we won it.”
Lumber Kings head coach Sheldon Keefe called the win destiny.
“I can’t even put it into words. Satisfying is not the correct word,” he said, while his son Landon, who was born on the team’s first day of training camp this season, sat in his arms. “I was proud of our guys regardless of what happened, regardless of what the outcome was of this game.
“Today was a little bit of destiny. (In the semifinal win) against Camrose, you could tell we had things going our way. Dupuis wasn’t going to let anything in.”
Dupuis was perfect in net, getting just his second shutout of the season. He admitted that he struggled while his team went 1-3 in the round-robin portion of the tournament.
“Round robin was kind of iffy for me,” he said. “I struggled there. I was fighting the puck there and it seems like in the semifinals and the finals I just found my groove.
“I saw every puck and my D did a great job of helping me out. It’s pretty easy to make a save when you see every puck.”
The Lumber Kings appeared to take the Vipers by surprise early in the first period, playing aggressively right out of the gate. Pembroke winger Stefan Salituro rang a shot off of the crossbar just a minute into play, but the Vipers weathered the storm and settled in to outshoot Pembroke 15-5 in the first period.
Both goalies starred throughout back-and-forth second and third periods. Halcrow repeatedly showed off his quick glove hand and Dupuis got his blocker on a backhanded deke attempt by Vernon centre Darren Nowick, who appeared to have the game’s first goal within his reach in the second period.
With time running out in the game, Milley made good on his chance. The Vipers won a draw in Pembroke’s end, but Milley stole the puck at the blue-line and broke in alone on Halcrow, slipping the puck under the goalie’s left leg at 13:39.
“Once I got the breakaway I knew,” Milley said. “I broke to the net and I knew I had to bury it.”
After Milley’s empty-net goal, the Lumber Kings’ red gloves went flying in unison in the air as the buzzer sounded.
Vipers head coach Mark Ferner said he was uncertain of what his team could do when the season started. There was a 16-player turnover from last year’s RBC Cup winning squad. No team in the history of the RBC Cup has ever won three consecutive titles.
“They’re a heck of a team and it’s well-deserved,” he said of Pembroke. “It’s unfortunate that someone had to lose. We had our chances, no question about it.
“Winning and losing is that much. You win an offensive draw and the puck gets blocked and ends up in the back of your net. I’m so proud of our group. We never thought we’d get this far.”
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