Vipers take command of series
Kevin Mitchell
Mar 22, 2017
The Vernon Vipers scored early and often in a Game 3 victory over the Trail Smoke Eaters Monday night at the Cominco Arena.
Seven different snipers connected and goalie Darion Hanson made 34 saves as Vernon humbled the Smokies 7-1. The Vipers hold a 3-0 series lead in the B.C. Hockey League Interior Division best-of-seven semifinal series. Game 4 goes tonight in Trail.
“We knew our start was going to be really, really important for our hockey team, so fortunately for us we got off to one,” said Vernon head coach Mark Ferner. “But that game was a lot closer than the score indicated.”
Trail overcame two-goal deficits against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks in at least two games of the opening playoff series, but the Vipers are a different animal, and Smoke Eater coach Cam Keith knew the Smokies needed to score first and play with a lead if they hoped to derail the Vipers.
The Vipers jumped out to an early lead, scoring four times in the first period to go up 4-0. Steven Jandric beat Trail starter Linden Marshall just 62 seconds in, and Ryan Brushett slid one short-side past the Trail goalie less than two minutes later to put the Vipers up 2-0.
“Our team is playing really good right now,” said Vipers’ captain and Trail native Riley Brandt. “Our goalie is hanging in there for us. We’re just coming together as a group, we’re chipping in, doing the right things and it’s working out for us.”
The Vipers are a team built for playoff hockey with a towering defence, a quick explosive offence that plays with an edge, is balanced, and can score in bunches, and backstopped by a big-time, big-save goalie that racked up the best numbers in the BCHL in the last half of the season with a 1.85 GAA.
“I don’t pigeonhole kids into roles, I expect everyone to play the same way,” said Ferner. “I expect everyone to play good defence, neutral zone, and I expect everyone to score, I mean we’re dealing with kids anywhere from 16-20 year olds and that’s our expectation where we’re all trying to play a certain style.”
Stillwater, Minn. native Simon Sagissor set up Luke Gingras in the slot, and he wired it glove side at 12:34 to put the Vipers up 3-0 and chase Marshall. Jimmy Lambert then welcomed Zach Dyment to the Smokies’ crease, finishing an efficient cross-crease pass from Jandric with 4:43 remaining in the opening frame to leave the 2,000 Smokies fans searching for answers, as the Vipers outshot the Smokies 9-7 in the period.
“I thought we played well, we came out hard, and we came out to that big lead, which makes it a lot easier to play defence when you’re up 4-0,” said Hanson, a Union commit. “We had a lapse in the second there, but we expected they were going to push hard, and in the third period we shut it down again.”
Trail came out determined in the second, and peppered Hanson on an early powerplay but came up empty. Smokies’ d-man Troy Ring finally beat Hanson midway through the period, when the Vancouver native settled a drop pass from Luke Santerno on the rush and fired it low stick side to cut the lead to 4-1.
The Smokies had a glorious chance to cut the lead in half after Niko Karamanis was sent off for tripping but Hanson slid across and robbed Howarth on a point-blank shot, and then denied Spencer McLean in close. Moments later, Karamanis jumped out of the penalty box behind the Smokies’ defence, and Vipers’ d-man Connor Clouston hit him with a breakaway pass. Karamanis made no mistake, streaking down the left side and pulling Dyment across the crease before slipping it between his pads for a 5-1 Viper lead.
The Smokies outshot Vernon 19-13 in the period, but Hanson stayed calm, cool, and collected throughout the middle frame in repelling the Smokie onslaught.
“At the end of the day, I just try to give my team a chance to win every night,” said the Minnesota native. “Try to be a rock back there, and I feel when a team has confidence in their goaltenders they play much better.”
The Smokies had their share of chances in the third, including a Connor Brown-Maloski effort when he split the defence and walked in all alone, went back-hand-forehand then fired a quick shot, but Hanson kicked out the left pad to stymie the Smokie captain.
The Vipers added two more, with Hunter Zandee making it 6-1 and Brett Stapley finished the scoring with 7:46 to play counting his second of the playoffs.
With the Smokies demoralized, Ethan Martini fought back and dropped the gloves with Zandee in an effort to give the Smokies a lift heading into Game 4.
The Smoke Eaters will need to find a way to shut down the Vernon forwards and beat Hanson if it expects to prolong the series after tonight.
“That’s a good hockey team, and we understand that fourth one is always the hardest to win,” said Ferner. “They’ve got good players, they’re well coached, we have all the respect in the world for them, and we know tomorrow’s going to be a real tough game.”
Vernon won the second game 5-2 before 1,945 fans Saturday night at Kal Tire Place.
“We played OK,” said Ferner. “The game was closer than the score indicates since we got an empty-netter.”
It was scoreless until 15:27 of the first period when Karamanis scored to put the Vipers up 1-0.
Brett Stapley converted just 27 seconds into the middle stanza to make it 2-0, while first star Jagger Williamson clicked at 14:35 give Vernon a 3-0 margin.
The Smokies connected on a power play at 17:56 when Santerno sniped his fifth of the playoffs, assisted by Brown Maloski and Carter Cochrane. The goal came just 27 seconds into Jandric’s minor penalty for roughing.
Less than a minute later, Jandric responded with an unassisted tally.
Trying to mount a comeback, the Smokies scored at 12:57 of the third when Brown Maloski supplied his seventh of the post-season with assists going to Santerno and Andre Ghantous. Trail pulled Marshall for an extra attacker and were pressuring the Vipers when Williamson broke away and hit the empty net with 54 seconds remaining.
Karamanis had 1+1 and took second star, while Santerno was third star with 1+1.
“We’re disappointed that we weren’t able to get a win in Vernon but you have to move past it and take care of your home ice,” said Smoke Eater head coach Cam Keith.
Jandric and Lambert of the Vipers and McLean and Ryan Warner of the Smokies all received misconducts at 12:37 of the third period.’
“Emotions got ramped up a bit, but that’s to be expected,” said Ferner. “It’s playoffs.”
Smokies’ all-star forward Josh Lamframboise collided with Lambert on a Trail powerplay in the second period and didn’t return for the remainder of the game. He missed Game 3.
In other action the Merritt Centennials iced the Penticton Vees 5-1 to cut the Vees edge to 2-1, while the Powell River Kings edged the Victoria Grizzlies 2-1 for a 2-1 series lead.
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