Vipers sweep Kings - BCHL champs again!
by Don Klepp | Added 2011-04-06
At 8:00 of the first overtime, Mike Zalewski’s goal created the exclamation point that allowed the Vernon Vipers to defeat the Powell River Kings by a score of 5-4 and transform the improbable into the remarkable.
In this year’s Fred Page final, the rookie-laden Vipers, one of the youngest teams in the league, swept the veteran Kings team that had set a BCHL record for fewest goals allowed in a season. After two ferociously defensive games in Powell River, won by the Vipers by scores of 3-1 and 1-0, the teams combined for 16 goals in the two games played in Vernon.
Tuesday’s contest was the most dramatic contest played at the Wesbild Centre this season. The desperate Kings squad took a 3-0 lead early in the second period, but the Vipers stormed back with four straight goals to take a 4-3 lead into the third period.
However, when the Vipers went into a defensive posture in the third, the Kings rallied to tie the game at 15:14. During a patented Powell River forecheck, Matt Garbowsky missed the open net with a backhand but Daniel Schuler bundled the puck in front and Garbowsky poked it in.
In overtime, the Vipers dominated, creating four scoring chances to just one for Powell River. The winner came when Brett Corkey made a good play at the Kings’ blue line and shot on goal. Mike Zalewski collected the rebound, turned, and swept the puck past Michael Garteig.
And thus the Vipers defeated the Kings in the league final for the third year in a row.
Garbowski, the BCHL regular season goal leader who had been largely invisible during this series, had opened the scoring at 6:58 of the first period when his seeing-eye backhand found its way through a forest of legs in front of Kirby Halcrow.
The Kings shocked the home crowd of 2466 by scoring two goals in the first 1:30 of the second period. First, Drew Pettitt took a pass from Daniel Schuler on a 2-on-1 rush and rapped the puck under Halcrow 44 seconds into the period. Then, Schuler bulled his way to the Viper net and slipped the disk past Halcrow on the short side.
The Kings seemed to be well on their way to their first win of the BCHL finals, but Mark Ferner called a time out to calm his troops and they responded with a solid defensive stance and two power play goals by David Robinson.
At 4:58 Steve Weinstein zipped a pass across the goal mouth for Robinson to drive home. Then, at 12:11 Robinson deflected Weinstein’s shot to make the score 3-2.
Weinstein was also instrumental in the tying goal at 15:58 when he flipped a puck for Kyle Murphy to fire home. By now, the 2466 fans in attendance were in full cry and on their feet.
Just 23 seconds later, Dylan Walchuk gave the Vipers their first lead of the game when his laser from the right faceoff circle took a slight deflection as it whistled past Garteig’s left shoulder.
The wild second period, which saw the Vipers score four times on just nine shots, ended on a defensive note that continued through most of the third stanza. After the Garbowsky tying goal, Kirby Halcrow’s instinctive save of a Chad Niddery backhand prevented the Kings from taking a 5-4 lead and set the stage Zalewski’s winner.
After the game, Viper captain David Robinson commented on his team’s improbable victory and series sweep: “That Kings team is just too good to be swept, but we made the plays when we need them. Tonight’s a good example – they had us on the ropes, but in the time out Ferns [Coach Ferner] said to just keep playing our game.”
“When we got the first goal, we just said, let’s get another, and when we got that one, it started to snowball. I credit our coaches, who never let us get too high or too low.”
“But,” Robinson added, “We give credit to the Kings because they never gave up. They’re hard to play against because they work so hard. This could have easily been a six-or-seven game series.”
The Doyle Cup series versus the Alberta champion will begin in Vernon on April 15 and 16.
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