Zalewski Leads Vipers to Gutsy Win:

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Zalewski Leads Vipers to Gutsy Win

Sunday, January 29, 2012 - Submitted by Don Klepp

Mike Zalewski’s third goal of the game gave the Vernon Vipers a dramatic 5-4 overtime win in Prince George.

Playing their third game in three days, the understaffed Vipers tried to get an early lead and play a defensive game the rest of the way. That strategy worked for most of the game as they took a 1-0 lead in the first period and frustrated the Spruce Kings with close checking for the first 55 minutes of the contest. Then things got a little crazy.

With the Vipers clinging to a 2-1 lead and not attempting offensive forays, the BCHL’s top scorer, Paul De Jersey, threaded a shot through a crowd to tie the game at 14:55 of the third period. At 16:14, Leo Fitzgerald’s long shot eluded Kirby Halcrow to give the Spruce Kings their first lead of the game. Leo added an empty netter at 18:49 and it looked like the Spruce Kings were home and dry, even though they had been out shot and outplayed for most of the game.

Then the Vipers were thrown a life line. Colton Sparrow was hauled down on a partial breakaway by Ben Woodley at 19:15 and referee Grant Tyson awarded a penalty shot. Sparrow was injured on the play as he crashed into the Prince George net, so another player had to take the shot.

Sparrow’s line mate, Colton Cyr, persuaded his coach that he could beat goalie Ty Swabb low to the stick side and that’s exactly what he did.

During the next shift, the Vipers worked their way into the Spruce King zone where Patrick McGillis won a battle and fed Ryan Renz for a point shot that missed and came off the back boards. Mike Zalewski was there to rifle the puck past Swabb and, improbably, the game was tied, 4-4.

As the teams lined up for four-on-four overtime, Zalewski came out again and again the Vipers worked the puck deep into the Spruce King zone. The big winger outworked two defenders in the left corner, came out in front and stuffed the puck past Swabb just 22 seconds into overtime.

For the Spruce Kings and Vipers it was, to quote Yogi Berra, “Déjà vu, all over again.” On October 1 in Vernon, the Spruce Kings had a 4-1 lead with 2:27 left to play. The Vipers tied that game with three goals in a minute and half and then won it early in overtime. Mike Zalewski had the late tying goal in that comeback as well.

In this game, Colton Sparrow’s power play goal opened the scoring at 3:35 of the first period. The Spruce Kings equalized at 6:02 of the second period, but Mike Zalewski restored the Viper lead at 14:05.

The pattern of tight checking punctuated by occasional sudden scoring chances continued well into the third until De Jersey’s seeing-eye shot opened the floodgates. Prior to that point, each team had hit iron a couple of times and each goalie had made some excellent saves to maintain the low score.

Viper Coach Jason Williamson was surprised by the wild finish. “We were short of players and we’ve had a gruelling weekend, so I was worried that PG might wear us down and get a late tying goal. But nobody could have predicted that finish!”

He went on, “Basically, we were running on fumes, but we gutted it out. Today, I challenged our top players to be better than PG’s top players and that’s what transpired. Mike [Zalewski] was pretty special today.”