Vipers And Centennials Battle To Draw:

This is posted on the Vipers website:

Vipers and Centennials battle to draw

by Don Klepp | Added 2011-12-03

Darren Nowick’s four-point night was tarnished when a late Sean Maktaak goal gave the visiting Merritt Centennials a 4-4 tie in Vernon on Friday.

Maktaak’s tying marker was a model of persistence. He lost the puck at centre, got it back, and was allowed to move into the Viper zone. He was checked again and lost the puck, but kept on moving and collected the puck before sliding a soft backhand shot under Kirby Halcrow with 1:53 remaining in the third period.

The goal was reminiscent of Merritt’s first goal, scored at 10:08 of the first period. On a 3-on-2 break, Chad Brears got free on the right wing and shot from the right faceoff circle. Halcrow went down early to stack the pads and the puck went under him.

The Centennials then took a 2-0 lead on a gift goal. Vernon’s Marc Hetnik fired a pass into Brears’s shin pads, giving the Merritt winger a partial break. Hetnik chased and hooked Brears; the Viper defender then lost his balance and the puck went with him into the net.

The Cents had a slight edge in play in the opening 20 minutes but that trend was completely reversed in the middle frame as the Vipers had the majority of scoring chances. They capitalized twice to tie the contest.

First, Darren Nowick scored at 10:08 in a combination play with Mike Zalewski, who gathered a Max Mowat pass at centre ice and fed Nowick after the two crossed the Merritt blue line. Nowick went behind the net, spun around, and beat Lino Chimienti with a wrist shot from the left side of the ice.

At 18:08, 10 seconds after a dominating Viper power play had ended, the Vipers maintained their momentum from the man advantage and Adam Tambellini delivered a hard wrister that glanced off Chimienti’s left arm.

Merritt took the lead at 1:53 of the third. Sean Maktaak was allowed to walk out from the left boards in the Viper zone. The rebound of his shot was smartly backhanded in by Dustin Lebrun.

That lead lasted for just over two minutes, when Darren Nowick went to work, scoring at 4:04 and 4:31.

His first goal, and second of the game, came from five feet after Aaron Hadley had stickhandled his way to the Merritt crease. Nowick backhanded the puck in as he was skating past the net.

On the shift following that goal, Adam Tambellini became entangled with goaltender Chimienti and the Cents were given a power play. Nowick’s hat trick goal came on a 2-on-1 with Mike Zalewski, who beat a Centennial point man at the Viper line and then rumbled down the right wing. Zalewski made a perfect pass to Nowick, who now has both Viper shorthanded goals this season.

The Vipers had nearly all the scoring chances in the two overtime periods, despite a Merritt power play that started in the first OT and continued in the second five-minute session. Chimienti managed a big save on Aaron Hadley and robbed Mike Zalewski on two occasions in the second overtime period.

Once again, the Vipers played a physical game, dishing out more than 50 hits for the second straight game. Jedd Soleway, Geoff Crisfield, Ryan Renz, and diminutive Riley Hunt led the way. On the other side, 230-pound Jacob Reichert was a one-man wrecking ball.

The Vipers have placed Luke Juha and Patrick McGillis on injured reserve. Colton Sparrow and Pete McMullen were also scratched because of injury, so the Vipers dressed a trio of affiliated players, Mike Rogers, Cole Sanford, and Phil Bamber.