I was born and raised in Vernon, BC and been watching/following Junior hockey in Vernon my whole life. My family watched Senior men's hockey in Vernon in the 1950's and has been watching Junior hockey in Vernon since it started in 1961. I have two family members that played Junior hockey in Vernon. I have had season tickets since 1990 missing only 40 home games. Since 2001 I have missed 10 home games. I started and created this blog in November 2008 and have over 3 million viewers. For anyone who couldn't watch or attend tonight's Vipers game, here are my thoughts and views from tonight's hockey game. You may agree or disagree, but we all have our own opinion on the hockey game and see things differently. I try to be professional and give a fare game recap from both sides. Thank you for visiting my blog.
I was at today's game between the Vernon Vipers & Penticton Vees as the Vees defeated the Vipers 5-2 in front of 2,021 fans at Kal Tire Place.
Starting Goaltenders:
Vernon Vipers: Jari Kykkanen
Penticton Vees: Ethan Buenaventura
To continue reading, please click the "read more" button below,
1st Period: It was all Penticton Vees from start to finish as the Vees dominated the opening period. Penticton carried the play for most of the period. It looked like men against boys for most of the period. The Vees are such great passers, moved the puck around, created/generated chances, scored three times played a solid 1st period other then taking two penalties. The Vipers were outplayed and struggled, needed seventeen minutes to get a shot on goal. Vernon did get a couple of odd man rushes and a few plays into the offensive zone but with no finish, didn't even get a shot on goal. The Snakes first power play, they didn't even get a shot on goal. Not a very good period from the hometown Vipers. It was 3-0 Penticton after 20 minutes of play. Shots were 10-2 Vees.
Here are some photo's I took before and during tonight's Vernon Vipers-Penticton Vees game.
2nd Period: Early into the period, Vernon would get a power play. Simon Meier took a double minor for butt-ending. The Vipers struggled with the man advantage. The Snakes would get just three shots with the four minute PP and score late in the man advantage to get on the scoreboard. Shortly after the Vipers would get a five minute PP and again struggle with the power play. The Snakes would get just three shots and again score late to get to within a goal. The Vipers carried the better of the play this period due to nine minutes in power play but didn't look good with the man advantage. The Vees would escape only giving up two goals. Penticton was shorthanded for close to half of the period. When the play was five on five, the Vees were the better team and carried the better of the play. It was 3-2 Vees after 40 minutes of play. Shots were 11-9 Penticton.
3rd Period: The Vees were the better team and had the better of the flow for most of the period. Penticton played well defensively, had a good PK and put the game away with two 3rd period goals. The Vipers played a little better to start the period and held their own for a lot of the first half before Penticton took over the edge in play. The Snakes would finally generate some offence, get some zone time and made the game a little interesting. Shots were 14-5 Penticton.
Vernon Vipers Top Performers:
Edvin Nilsson (2 assists) Played a good game on the Vipers blueline. Nilsson has really come into his own the past few months and playing very well late in the season.
Tyson Zimmer (1 goal) Got the Vipers on the board with a power play goal in the 2nd period. Zimmer played hard, took a couple of big hits, blocked a couple of shots but battled/competed
Jari Kykkanen (30 saves) I think the Vipers would be much worse if it wasn't for the goaltending of former Kelown Rocket Jari Kykkanen. Was very good in goal this evening, kept the Snakes in the hockey game or this game would have got away on the Vipers
Game Thought's: Vernon Vipers
- Tonight was the second game of a two game home stand
- The Vipers have lost four of their last five games and lost eight of their last ten games
- The Vipers & Vees play once more, March 15th in Vernon
- The Vipers were outplayed the entire 1st period. Vernon needed seventeen minutes to get a shot on goal. This period wasn't even close as it looked like men against boys. The Vipers struggled offensively, had a couple of odd man rushes, other wise couldn't do much of anything. Vernon went 0-2 with the man advantage, didn't get a single shot on one of those two power play's
- The Snakes are 6-10-5-0 at home this season
- Vernon went 2-6 with the power play
- This team is very inconsistent and hard to watch this season. Not much to cheer about this season
- The Vipers have lost twenty one of their last twenty three games vs the Vees
- The Snakes are eight points back of Okotoks for the final playoff spot
- Tonight's attendance was announced at 2,021
- For those of us who recorded the Canada/USA game, and were going to watch it after the Vipers game, thanks to the Vipers for ruining the game, by giving updates/scores through out the evening
- The Vipers had a great opportunity to not only get back in the hockey game but maybe even tie the game or take the lead, Vernon struggled with the man advantage in the 2nd period. The Vees took a four minute butt-ending and a five minute major, and the Snakes would get just three shots on each PP scoring twice. The power play looked horrible and disorganized. Other then that the Vees were the better team
- The Vipers next game is Monday in Salmon Arm
- The Snakes are 1-3-1-0 vs Penticton this season
- Vernon's power play struggled. Sure they scored twice but otherwise looked disorganized, scrambled, even had troubles just getting pucks to the net let alone opportunities
- Since 2019 the Vipers have beat the Vees just five times
- A much smaller crowd tonight
- Vernon has thirteen regular season games remaining
- The Vipers have just four wins in their last nineteen games
- The Vipers played a little better in the 3rd, I thought looked a little more engaged in the hockey game, showed a little more jump/emotion to start the period. The Snakes for the first time all night, finally would get some zone time and make the game a little interesting before the Vees changed the momentum and took over the remainder of the period and the game with two 3rd period goals
- The Vipers have just six regular season home games left
- With the loss, Vernon falls to 12-23-6-0 sits 10th in the Interior Conference and 19th overall in league standings
Penticton Vees Top Performers:
Luke Posthumus (1 assist) I thought played very well for the Vees. A big body, gave the Vipers troubles through out the contest
Callum Stone (1 goal & 1 assist) Was another Vees forward who played well chipping in with two pts. Stone was involved in the play often
Ryden Evers (1 goal) Leads the Vees in scoring this season, is big, very skilled, was hard to contain and defend, had a strong game. Evers was an affiliated player with the 2021-22 Vernon Vipers
Michael Fisher (1 assist) Played well on the blueline. Was physical, hard on the body, played well at both ends of the rink
Georgios Stavrianeas made his return to Kal Tire Place after being acquired in a trade with the Victoria Grizzlies on Monday. The former Viper played hard, played with a lot of jump/energy, was involved in the play, had a couple of good looks
Game Thought's: Penticton Vees
- A large crowd of Vees fans were in attendance tonight
- The Vees next game is Monday vs the visiting West Kelowna Warriors
- The Vees are 2-0-0-0 in Vernon this season
- A very dominate 1st period. Penticton was by far the better team, outplayed the hometown Vipers in the opening period. It was all Vees as they controlled the play, had a ton of zone time, a ton of puck possession and took a 3-0 lead into the 2nd period
- The Vees went 0-1 with the power play
- Penticton has lost three of their last five games and won seven of their last ten games
- Reports are going around this will be the Vees last season in the BCHL as the team is expected to join the Western Hockey League as an expansion team next season
- Forward Ryden Evers was an "AP" with the 2021-22 Vernon Vipers
- The Vees have a very quick transition game, are hard to defend, move the puck in a hurry, can skate and almost never miss a pass. Their passing is tape to tape almost every time. The Vees are very well coached and very structured
- Penticton played with a bit of an edge this evening, got into penalty trouble
- Goaltender Ethan Buenaventura's playing rights were held by the Vernon Vipers. The Vipers traded his rights to the Cowichan Capitals November 8th 2024 for Noah Grolnic. The Capitals traded him to Penticton November 12th 2024
- The Vees got into penalty trouble in the 2nd period. The Vees would take a double minor and five minute major, held their own on the PK limiting Vernon to just three shots on each PP but did give up a PP goal late in each of the two penalties. Otherwise the Vees were the better team, carried the better of the play. The Vees still managed to get out of the period with the lead
- The Vees are 16-6-0-0 on the road this season
- Assistant Coach Jason McKee spent parts of five seasons in Vernon as the Vipers Head Coach/GM from 2019-2024
- Penticton has some big bodies and one of the bigger teams that have played in Vernon this season
- With a 3-2 lead heading into the 3rd, the Vees held off the Vipers early before changing the momentum and slowly taking over the remainder of the game. Penticton would score twice to put the game away but played very well defensively
- With the win, Penticton improves to 31-7-4-0 sit 1st in the Interior Conference and 1st overall in league standings
Scratches:
Vernon Vipers:
Nathaniel Harvey
Eddie Revenig
Luc Bydal
Penticton Vees:
Zach Nyman
Connor Lee
Landon Hilditch
Anselmo Rego
Sharky Nowek
Energy Player of the Game:
Jari Kykkanen (30 saves)
Three Star's:
1st Star: Max Heise (1 goal & 1 assist)
2nd Star: Edvin Nilsson (2 assists)
3rd Star: Callum Stone (1 goal & 1 assist)
Boxscore-Game Summary,
Game Report,
Text Box Score,
Vernon Junior Hockey History website,
Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions in the comment box below. Please be respectful when leaving comments.
20 comments:
I've been following this game for more decades than most fans have been alive. Rarely is butt ending ever called, but when it is it has ALWAYS been a major penalty. I've never ever seen it called as a double minor. Never. That should have been an automatic major and a game misconduct.
MMUCH SMALLER CROWD, it is only 120 less than Friday!
Respectfully, I don’t think the Vipers ‘ruined’ anything by announcing the Canada score. Did you actually think you were going to PVR that game and escape any kind of mention from anyone before you got home? If anything, they were providing a service in updating those who sacrificed watching that on tv to come and support the team. That comment was a little passive aggressive in my opinion.
I think you are wrong. Butt Ending, Spearing and Kneeing are all double minors and are only increased to a major in the case of an intent to injure Match. This situation was far from a match. I do remember when Butt Ending, Spearing and drawing Blood with a high stick was an automatic 5 minute penalty but that was years ago. In case you are wondering, I am old enough to know who Bert O is so likely have been following hockey as long as you. I do understand why you would have wanted the extra minute of power play as, quite frankly, the only time our Vipers were even a little competitive was when on the power play, and we did have a lot of power play chances. Maybe next game against the Vees, Brooks or Trail the league will agree for the entire game to be 5 on 4 and we may have a chance.
In the past the announcer would warn the crowd he was going to update scores.
So leading in with “we have an update from the 4 nations tournament..” isn’t a ‘warning’? Curious how else that should be done?
Rob did warn the crowd. He never just announced the score.
I wonder if the micro managing of John Glenn is what’s keeping the coaches from engaging with the players on the bench during a game.
Does anyone know what the coaches are like during practice?
Isn't a buttend to the face intent to injure?
Same lineup same results. Penticton is a talented, well coached team that toyed with us all evening. Only reason it wasn't a blow out was the huge amount of pp time we had. Maybe mixing up the lines and pp units would at least look like the coaches are trying to win games.
The score was closer than I expecting, especially after a 3-0 start for the Vees. I was thinking it was going to be a blow out
I get really irked when they announce the 50/50 is going to be 3 separate prizes, 2@$500 and 1@$150.
When I bought mine, there was no mention of 3 prizes so, I was thinking that if, I won I would get 50% of the total take which, in this case would have been $1150.
I did not win but, something is off with this senario. In my opinion, this is totally false and misleading advertising of the 50\50 sales, normally one would get the 50% share of the take. If, they tell you at the time of sale that the prize may be split into 2 or 3 prizes, then, you can decide if, you would like to purchase or not, otherwise, one is thinking there is going to be one prize of 50% of the take.
I don’t like it and think this needs to change because, sometimes they give 1 prize and other times multiple prizes. So, when purchasing you NEVER know if, the prize will be split or not.
Next time, I’m going to ask but, I think most people who buy the tickets won’t know to ask and I’m sure there are others that feel the same as myself.
Will always buy them because, the money goes to a good cause but, I would to be told if the prize money is going to be split ahead of time, not when they announce the winners.
I was wondering the same. The way it was explained to me was that there are certain specifics with licensing from BC Lottery Corp that some licences don’t cover single prizing over $500, thus there has to be multiple awards, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to participate. That sounds fair. I know it’s frustrating, but I don’t think it’s a picnic for them either.
Yes, I knew that but, tell the buyers so that they know before hand!
They can’t really promote multiple draws if they don’t sell enough tickets to HAVE multiple draws…and I understand they don’t know that until they’re counting the money.
Like, if gross sales are only $ 900, jackpot is $450. One draw. If they team you ahead of time there will be two, maybe three separate draws, will that not irk fans more?
2 years ago my employer stopped doing the 50/50 just for this very reason. You need to have a board of directors and other senseless criteria in order to get a license to raise money for your fundraising recipient. Too much red tape so that's why the fundraiser at last nights game had to distribute the winnings in $500 increments. If they hadn't they would have been hit with a huge fine.
Correct. Not the Vipers fault though, it’s all BC Lotto Corporation
I get that but, time and time again it is 1 prize then, all of a sudden it is multiple. My point being that they would know ahead of time what their license entails, either your allowed 1 prize or multiple prizes if the pot is $1000 or more. Then they should mention the fact at time of sale or prominently post it at the arena or over the PA.
Exactly, BC Gaming should mandate that the Licensee post if the license is for multiple prizes. No one is putting this on the Vipers organization. It is all the Licensee and BC Gaming.
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