Vipers Outplay Spruce Grove:

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Vipers outplay Spruce Grove

by Don Klepp | Added 2011-04-16

The Vernon Vipers opened their defence of the Doyle Cup with a convincing 3-1 win over the Spruce Grove Saints in Vernon on Saturday.

Vincenzo Marozzi was superb for the Saints in the first period as the Vipers bombarded him with 18 shots while his team managed just 5 on Kirby Halcrow. Marozzi was especially hot during a Viper 5 on 3 power play that lasted a minute and 12 seconds. He made three saves on deflections and point blank shots that seemed destined to beat him.

At the other end, Spruce Grove nearly scored with the man advantage, but Kirby Halcrow denied Scott Allen by doing the splits and stopping the puck with his right skate.

The second period was more even as the Saints got their forecheck rolling and out shot the Vipers 11-7. However, the Vipers scored the only two goals of the period on counterattacks.

The first goal resulted from a neutral zone turnover created by Mike Zalewski and Malcolm Lyles. Zalewski fed Darren Nowick on the right wing. In attempting to check the speedy Nowick, gangly defenceman Jesse Slobodian tripped over his own feet, giving the Vipers an odd man rush.

Marozzi stopped Nowick’s shot, but Marcus Basara hustled to pop in the rebound at 6:06.

Zalewski was again a catalyst for Nowick’s goal at 17:10. Nowick picked a defenceman’s pocket at centre ice and found Zalewski, who cut across to the left wing and then fed a pass at the goal mouth for Nowick to tip past Marozzi.

The other incident of note in the second period was an elbow to Malcolm Lyles’s head that levelled the Viper spark plug in his zone. From that point on, Lyles became a physical force, delivering one crunching hit after another.

Dylan Walchuk made the score 3-0 with a power play goal at 6:31 of the final period, as he converted a nice feed delivered by Dane Muench from behind the Spruce Grove goal line.

Muench returned to action for the first time after suffering a severely dislocated shoulder in the second game of the Westside series, on March 9.

Dustin Fostvelt notched the Saints’ lone goal at 7:44 from the top of the faceoff circle. His wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle zipped through several players and past a screened Halcrow.

The Saints tried to intensify their hitting game in the last two periods, but were out hit 38-25 in the contest. And, on this night at least, they were unable to match the Vipers’ speed.

Still, it’s apparent that Spruce Grove is a well-schooled, balanced team. If they continue to get sterling goaltending from Marozzi and if they can mobilize their forecheck, they will give the Vipers all they can handle.

Game two will be played Saturday in Vernon. If the Vipers win again, the series will shift to Spruce Grove for the remainder of the games. If the Saints win, a third game will be played in Vernon on Sunday night before the teams head to Alberta.