Blacklock Leads Vipers Again:

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Blacklock Leads Vipers Again
 
Sunday, January 20, 2013 - Submitted by Don Klepp

For the second straight night, Mason Blacklock led a strong Viper effort, this time leading to a 3-1 win in Duncan over the Cowichan Valley Capitals.

Blacklock, who represents the initial return on the trade that sent Adam Tambellini to Surrey, was named the game’s first star, as he was in Nanaimo on Friday. Partnered with Dexter Dancs and Andrew Tegeler, Blacklock was the most productive member of a Viper squad that played with confidence and determination.

That determination was particularly evident in the Viper penalty killing. Coming into the game, the Capitals had the league’s best home power play at 27.27 percent. However, the Caps were unable to dent the Viper defence with the man advantage. The Vipers allowed no goals and just two scoring chances while short handed five times.

The Vipers are a much more successful team when they score first in a game.  (They have 13 wins as opposed to 15 losses when the opposition opens the scoring.) Colton Sparrow helped continue that trend with his goal at 10:30 of the first period.

Brendan Persley was a man on a mission in Duncan and that mission was to create havoc in the offensive zone. He separated the puck from a Cowichan defenceman and threw it into the slot where Sparrow was cruising to find an opening.  With one motion, Sparrow collected the puck and backhanded it past goalie Connor LaCouvee.

Showing trademark tenacity, Mason Blacklock started a play that gave the Vipers a two goal lead toward the end of the opening 20 minutes. He won a puck battle at centre ice and head manned the disk to Andrew Tegeler at the Cowichan blue line. Tegeler went wide and waited for Dexter Dancs to arrive at the Capitals’ net. Dancs jammed Tegeler’s centering feed past LaCouvee at 18:07.

Despite three Capital power plays in the second period, The Vipers scored the lone goal of the middle frame. As Andrew Tegeler emerged from the penalty box, Liam Board fired a clearing pass to Tegeler whose speed was matched by Mason Blacklock as they raced unimpeded into the Cowichan zone. Blacklock one-timed Tegeler’s perfect dish past LaCouvee at 13:18.

Down 3-0, the Capitals refused to quit. If anything, they redoubled their efforts after the Blacklock tally. The overall result was fast, well-played hockey that entertained for the full 60 minutes.

Their energetic response finally produced a result at 16:48 of the third period when Jamie Waddington jammed in a centering feed from Michael Jung. Earlier, Jarrett Brown had rung a hard shot off the cross bar behind Austin Smith.

Smith earned a second star for his assured play in the Viper net as he stopped 30 of 31 shots.

Both teams played a hard-nosed, spirited style that belied their current lowly status in the standings. Clearly, the recent trades of their respective top scorers have given players on both teams incentive and opportunity to strive for more significant roles in the latter stages of this season.