Vipers Watch Warriors Win:

This is posted on the Vipers website:

Vipers watch Warriors win

by Don Klepp | Added 2011-12-09

After a rather slow first period during which the Vipers forged ahead, the hometown Westside Warriors took advantage of a lethargic Viper squad in the second period and eventually held on for a 5-2 win on Friday evening.

The Vipers were rather careless in their own end in the opening period, turning the puck over at their own blue line four times. However, Kirby Halcrow made the saves his team needed and the Vipers escaped with a 1-0 lead.

Jedd Soleway scored that goal, putting a wrist shot through Dwayne Rodrigue’s pads at 13:48. The goal followed a good forecheck by Soleway, Mike Roberts and Brendan Persley. Roberts drew an assist, the first BCHL point for the 16-year-old AP, a Vernon native.

However, the Warriors exploded for four goals in the second period as the Vipers stood and watched in their own end for about half the period. Three of those goals came in a 71 second span.

Shawn Hochhausen opened the floodgates with a power play rocket from the high slot at 5:19. Just 12 seconds later, a loose puck after a faceoff in the Viper zone came to Devon Hascarl, who beat Halcrow.

Another faceoff win by the Warriors and more indifferent Viper defending allowed Connor Dempsey to beat Halcrow from the edge of the crease at 6:30. Dempsey scored again at 11:44, squeezing the puck through Halcrow’s pads from an apparently impossible angle.

Danny Todosychuk replaced Halcrow at that point and the Vipers played better defensive hockey for the rest of the game, allowing only 11 more shots. However, they were unable to create much in the Warrior zone, so Westside went to the dressing room with a well-deserved three goal lead.

The teams traded goals in the third period. Adam Tambellini scored a power play marker at 16:57, when he came off the point to wire a wrist shot past Rodrigue. Reid Simmonds slid in an empty netter at 19:21 as the Warriors beat the Vipers for the first time in four tries this season.

In the final analysis, the Vipers had roughly the same number of scoring chances as the Warriors and had one more shot on goal (33-32), but the one-minute lapse midway through the second period cost them the game.