Halcrow Shuts the Door:

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Halcrow Shuts the Door

Saturday, February 4, 2012 - Submitted by Don Klepp

A 41-save performance by Kirby Halcrow led the Vipers to a 4-0 whitewash of the Merritt Centennials on Friday in Vernon.

The Vipers reversed the tables on the Centennials, who had allowed just one goal in the three previous meetings between the two teams. Halcrow had a lot to do with that reversal, as he was spectacular at times.

Halcrow’s highlight reel included a toe save on Brandon Pfeil’s low point shot in the first period and two remarkable saves on Evan Stack shots in the second period, one of them with the paddle of his stick when it seemed that he was down and out.

Many of his 16 third-period saves came on shots from well out, but three times he sprawled to thwart Centennial chances in the crease. Also, as time was running down, he made a lightning fast right pad save on a deflected Dylan Chanter drive.

Meanwhile, Lino Chimienti made some big saves of his own, especially on a Patrick McGillis short handed breakaway when the score was still 1-0.

He had a little or no chance to stop any of the Viper goals. The first came from the stick of John Knisley, who returned to the lineup after missing 13 games with an upper body injury.

Knisley’s hand/eye coordination was showcased when he took a waist high wrist shot, knocked it forward, and then batted it out of the air past a handcuffed Chimienti at 6:45 of the first period.

Adam Tambellini made it 2-0 when he pumped in a rebound on the power play at 11:38. Brett Corkey had threaded a low point shot through to the goal, where Aaron Hadley occupied two defenders and allowed Tambellini to swoop in for the kill.

There was no scoring in the middle frame, although the Vipers had five excellent scoring chances and the Cents had three, two while killing a penalty. The highlight of the period was a scuffle in the Merritt goal crease between buddies Lino Chimienti and Ben Gamache.

As Gamache tells it, “we played summer hockey in Boston last summer and became good friends, but somebody pushed me into Lino and I ended up on top of him. We both speak three languages – English, French and hockey profanity. It was the last of the three that was spoken at the bottom of the dog pile!”

The Vipers increased their lead to four goals early in the third period. They notched another power play goal at 2:14 when Mike Zalewski hammered a high shot past Chimienti. Then at 6:21, Jedd Soleway lifted a backhand over Chimienti’s left shoulder after affiliated player Eric Chore had won a battle behind the Merritt nat.

The Centennials had a golden chance to reduce the Viper lead when they had a full two minutes of a 5-on-3 power play starting at 11:14. However, strong penalty killing prevented the Cents from getting a shot on goal until the last 15 seconds of the power play, and then Kirby Halcrow was sharp.

After the game, Halcrow said that he thinks “Sunday’s comeback win in Prince George has really brought this team together. I think we’re ready to take a run at a playoff spot. Pretty soon, we’ll have most of our players back, and we’ll be tough down the stretch.”