Vipers Not Imtimidated By Storm Antic’s:

If Mike Vandekamp and the Grande Prairie Storm thought they were going to defeat the Vernon Vipers by intimidation, well they were wrong. The Vipers are one of if not the strongest team in the BCHL and wont be intimidated by anyone, this including the Grande Prairie Storm. Friday & Saturday night in Games 1 & 2 of the Doyle Cup, Mike Vandekamps Storm played physical trying to outhit the Vipers, after Mark Ferners Vipers come back with the physical play of their own, Vernon was by far the better team on both nights winning both games 2-1 and 6-2. Yes Grande Prairie didn’t play for almost a full two weeks prior to the Doyle Cup, but in the end the Vipers outhit, outworked and outscored the Alberta Champions. Grande Prairie with some good solid defence and strong goaltending, is short up front on the offensive side of things. Vandy’s Storm may be a hard working hockey club, loaded with grit and toughness but this time of year, you also need the goal scorers to get the job done up front. I could be wrong and maybe the Storm’s offensive units took two nights off while in Vernon, it just seems that in past years Vandy seems to be short in the goal scoring department with most of his teams. After losing Game 1 before Game 2 during the team’s warmup Captain Blake Clement was acting as if to try and fire a puck towards Vipers Kevin Kraus, Clement on several attemps acted as if he was going to hit Kraus with the puck. In Game 2 the Storm were down and out as two mini line brawls started, one late in the 2nd period as both teams looked to be trying to get at one another. As the game went on, Grande Prairie looked to be very frustrated and with just 26 seconds remaining, Elias Grossmann & Josh Juell lost their cool. Grossman delivered a huge elbow to Vernon’s Bryce Kakoske and the fight was on, Grossman decide’s to tangle with the linesmen, rughing him up, and then on his way off the ice, spits in his face. Juell was swinging his stick like a major league baseball player in the altercation as both players were tossed from the game. Sending guys out late in a lop sided game like that is bs and isn’t needed in the Doyle Cup. In Game 1 the Vipers top line line of Kellen Jones, Connor Jones & Sahir Gill were able to cycle the puck down low, buzzing around the Storm net, collecting three points. In Game 2 Grande Prairie decided they would try and punish the Vipers top line, laying the body on the youngsters. Well this didn’t stop the Vipers #1 unit nor put a scare into them. Sahir Gill was hit hard and often but manages to still keep going. This isn’t anything new to to Mark Ferner and the Vipers, in the Interior Conference Finals it was a war between Vernon and Salmon Arm. If Vandy thinks he can intimidate Vernon, he should give Rylan Ferster a call and ask him how his Silverbacks did against the Vipers in the teams 2nd round matchup. Ferners Vipers are a very calm and cool bunch, they don’t back down. Their’s a time and place for the intimidation factor, but if you think it will work against this years Vernon Vipers, your wrong. The Vipers were run and hit in the Salmon Arm series, players were hit with high head shots, flying elbows and still won the series. Its going to take more then flying elbows and trying to take guys down if you want to knock off the Vipers. Vandy has been outcoached so far in this series and it has showed. Vernon wont back down from the rough stuff, the Vipers have gritt and toughness as well with the likes of Cameron Brodie, Kyle Bigos, Cole Ikkala, Rob Short, Mike Leidl, Chris Crowell, & Braden Pimm. The Storm need to get back to playing hockey if they want to beat the Vipers. For one scoring the first goal isn’t always the key, the Storm have scored the games first goal of each Game but have yet to win. Grande Prairie needs to make the Vipers pay on the powerplay, going 0-8 in the first two games isn’t going to win you games. The Storm need to try and get traffic to the front of the net, get Andrew Hammond off his game, get more pucks towards the net, getting just 15 and 23 shots in each of the first two games isn’t enough come this time of yr. I expect to see a much better performance from the Storm on home ice. If Vandy and the Storm want to keep trying to intimidate the Vernon Vipers, its going to be a short Playoff series.