Gordon Gooses Quesnel:

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Gordon gooses Quesnel

By Nicole Berg - Vernon Morning StarPublished: November 18, 2008 7:00 PM

Graeme Gordon is proving to be more than just Andrew Hammond’s caddy with the Vernon Vipers.
Gordon went the distance as the Vipers stuffed the Quesnel Millionaires 4-0 Sunday afternoon at Wesbild Centre, pulling to within a point of the Interior Conference leading Salmon Arm SilverBacks. Vernon (17-7-1-2) hosts the Merritt Centennials Friday night and visit the Penticton Vees Saturday.
It was the second career B.C. Hockey League shutout for the 19-year-old North Vancouver product.
“I felt pretty good about this game and I’m ecstatic to get my first shutout as a Viper,” said Gordon, who registered his first shutout as a Salmon Arm SilverBack last year. “The boys played pretty solid in front of me and only allowed the Quesnel forwards to get 14 shots on me. Even though I didn’t face very many shots to get the win, some of their shots were real quality scoring chances but I stopped them all.”
Gordon earned the start thanks to a well-deserved 4-1 win (33 saves and first star) over the host Westside Warriors Saturday night, where he was quick on his feet and didn’t give up too many secondary scoring chances.
Gordon improves to a sparkling 6-0 record with the Vipers, supported by a 1.39 goals against average and a 94.16 save percentage.
Vernon head coach Mark Ferner was pleased with his team’s effort.
“The guys played a pretty well-rounded game and the defence especially played good, as they only gave up 14 shots. One of our plans heading into the game was for the defencemen to eliminate the opposition’s scoring chances, and we did quite well in that.
“Graeme played good. Going from facing 34 shots yesterday to only 14 today was quite an adjustment for him, but he came out on top once he made a couple big saves in the second period. Braden Pimm (two goals) also played phenomenal, as he is one of our most consistent forwards each game and probably has the hardest work ethic.”
In a first period that saw very little flow, each team mustered just six shots. Quesnel (9-17-0-3) had an early chance to score on two powerplay opportunities but couldn’t make anything happen.
Pimm got things rolling with his 16th of the year, on a high, hard shot that he ripped past Mills’ starter Kiefer Smiley (29 saves).
Later on, Ryan Santana was creating some havoc around the Mills’ net, throwing pucks on Smiley. Cole Ikkala saw the puck bouncing around and jumped on it quick to bag his second goal of the season.
Ikkala filled in for the second-year veteran John Digness who was scratched for the second straight game.
“We’re very fortunate to have 24 guys who all contribute greatly to the team,” said Ferner. “Since all of them can play quality games, we switch things up sometimes by scratching some veterans to allow the rookies to play. Cole played outstanding in John’s place, especially with that goal he scored today.”
Pimm scored his team-leading 17th goal four minutes into the third frame on a nice pass from Kellen Jones.
“That was a good pass that Kellen fed me there,” said Pimm. “After that, I knew I had the goalie beat so I just shot the puck, and when you shoot the puck good things happen. I’ve been enjoying playing on a line with Crow (Chris Crowell) and (Mike) Collins lately. They’re both pretty easy guys to play with and always feed me the puck when they get a chance, and if I have it, I pass it off to them. As a result, we all work pretty well together.”
Connor Jones potted his ninth with five minutes remaining. Kyle Bigos and Joshua Martin got into a mini scrap midway through the period in front of 1,889 fans.
The Mills, who were thumped 8-1 by the SilverBacks Saturday night in Quesnel, iced a patchwork lineup Sunday.
“We hung in the game early on, but halfway through we kind of let up a little bit,” said Mills’ head coach Tom Bohmer. “Vernon came on strong and managed to score a couple easy goals which our goalie would have liked to have back. Those goals gave Vernon the momentum, and throughout the game no matter what we did, we couldn’t come back and play even with them.
“We were missing six of our regulars as they’re all banged up, which is the story of our group, so we had to rely more on Kiefer to keep us in the game. He gave us a good chance of winning but we couldn’t get anything to go our way. Hats off to Vernon; they played a committed full 60-minute game.”
In Westside, the Vipers grabbed period leads of 1-0 and 3-0 and used some stellar penalty killing to stop the Warriors (0-for-7 on the powerplay).
Bryce Kakoske, on a first-period powerplay, Pimm, Santana and Cory Kane, into an empty net, handled the Viper offence. Collins had two assists. Jordan Gagne replied for the third-place Warriors (15-9-0-3) at Royal LePage Place.