Vipers Earn Tie:

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Vipers Earn Tie:

December 18 2016

Morning Star staff

Three goals in six minutes in the final 11 minutes of regulation time helped the Vernon Vipers earn 1 single point.

The Snakes rallied from 3-0 deficit in the third period to tie the Merritt Centennials 3-3 in B.C. Hockey League action Friday in front of 350 fans at Merritt's Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.

Vernon closed out the first half of the season with a game in Trail Saturday night.

"Eleven minutes left, down 3-0 on the road, at this time of year, maybe it wasn't going to be our night," said Vernon head coach Mark Ferner.

"Give the kids credit. They continued to work and weren't going to be denied at least a single point."

After a scoreless opening period, the Centennials beat Ty Taylor twice in the middle frame, once on a carom off a body and once on a powerplay, then added a third goal seven minutes into the third and looked to be on their way to victory.

Cue the Vernon comeback. Niko Karamanis, with his 12th of the year, got Vernon on the board at 8:59, starting the 11-minute rally.

Austin Adamson pulled Vernon to with-in one with his sixth of the year at 14:04, after some great work down low and a great feed from Jagger Williamson, and defenceman Michael Ufberg brought the Vipers all the way back with a powerplay goal (his sixth of the season) at 15:09.

Merritt's Nick Fidanza was whistled for a two-minute tripping penalty at 3:46 of overtime, leaving the Vipers on a powerplay to finish the contest.

The teams were playing three-on-three in the second overtime. The league's new for-mat, wich came into effect this year, say's if there's a penalty in the second overtime frame, the teams will play four-on-three as opposed to awarding a penalty shot.

The Snakes peppered the Merritt net with shots but could not beat goalie Jacob Berger, the game's first star, who finished with 48 saves.

Jimmy Lambert looked to have scored his fifth goal in two games on the powerplay, firing toward an open net. A Merritt defender, however, dove across and got a piece of the shot with the shaft of his stick, deflecting it out of play.

Taylor made 28 stops.

"It was a good character game for us," said Ferner.

Vernon's Brett Jewell was held off the Merritt scoresheet.

The Vipers took a four-point lead over third-place Trail into Saturday's game with the Smoke Eaters.

Merritt slipped into fifth place in the Interior Division, one point back of West Kelowna. The Warriors leapfrogged into fourth place with a 6-1 win Friday at home over the Powell River Kings.