Pembroke Denies Vernon’s Three-Peat Bid:

This is posted on the Vipers website:

Pembroke denies Vernon’s three-peat bid

by Don Klepp | Added 2011-05-08

The Pembroke Lumber Kings halted the Vernon Vipers’ run at the Canadian Junior “A” championships with a 2-0 victory in Camrose on Sunday.

The Vipers led in every statistical category except on the scoreboard, outshooting the Kings 40-28 and creating nearly twice as many scoring chances. However, Francis Dupuis was solid and occasionally brilliant in the Pembroke net as he gave his team a chance to win.

Their chance came deep in the third period. Jonathan Milley, who led the tournament with seven goals, blocked a Ryan Renz shot at the Pembroke line and created a breakaway.

When goalie Kirby Halcrow tried a poke check, Milley shot low on the glove side. Halcrow got his left pad on the shot, but the puck bounced off the pad and into the net at 13:39.

Milley added an empty netter at 19:45 to seal the Vipers’ fate.

The Lumber Kings won the game because of Dupuis’s heroics and also because the Pembroke defencemen restricted the number of second chance shots. Also, the entire team played at a much higher level than in Vernon’s 5-3 win during the preliminary round.

Most of the Lumber King offence was generated by the line of Matthew Peca, Kyle Just, and Jonathan Milley. In one flurry near the end of the second period, they forced Kirby Halcrow to make three excellent saves.

Halcrow also had to make a great save with 11 minutes remaining when Matthew Peca set up Kyle Just at the goal mouth.

Likewise, Dupuis was at his best on several tips by Viper forwards. David Robinson had some of the best chances: “I was sure I had him beat on at least three occasions, but he kept sliding over. You have to give the guy credit.”

The Vipers were understandably disconsolate following the game. Adam Thompson, one of the very few Jr. “A” players to play in three straight RBC Cup final games, expressed his team’s reaction: “It was so disappointing because we kind of dominated the tournament. Compared to the feeling we’ve had the previous two years, this really, really sucks!”

The Vipers will fly from Edmonton to Kelowna at noon Monday. A community celebration of the team’s season will be held at Vernon City Hall at noon, Tuesday.