Vipers weary following 3-gamr road trek
Kevin Mitchell
Wed Oct 4th, 2017
No practice Monday or Tuesday. And the Vernon Vipers, a very tight bunch, were even too tired and sick to even text or Facetime one another.
The sickly Snakes were loading up on cold and flu medications after an exhausting road trip which saw them go 3-0 after a 5-4 win over the Surrey Eagles Sunday night.
“The whole group is sick,” said Viper head coach Mark Ferner. “It’s crazy, putting those kids through that; three games in two-and-a-half days in three different cities. It’s stupid. You don’t get a lot in that third game. By the end of it, we were exhausted. They sucked it up and played hard.”
Ferner, nursing a head cold, was going over video of the Penticton Vees Tuesday morning at his office. The Vipers start a home and home series with the Vees Friday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre and play again Saturday, 6 p.m., at Kal Tire Place.
Penticton is ranked No. 1 in the 132-team Canadian Junior A League. The Vipers are rated 12th.
The Vees are the lone perfect team in the B.C. Hockey League at 5-0. Vernon leads the Interior Division at 7-1-0-1.
Jordan Sandhu’s goal with 3:15 remaining proved to be the winner Sunday as Vernon shaded the Eagles before 700 fans.
Rookie defenceman Jack Judson scored the final two goals as the Vipers edged the Nanaimo Clippers 4-3 before 1,190 fans Saturday night at Frank Crane Arena.
Jagger Williamson (3rd of the season), Jesse Lansdell (3rd), Brett Stapley (6th) and Keyvan Mokhtari (2nd) also supplied snipes in Surrey. John Wesley, who rang up 11 goals with the WHL Vancouver Giants last year, scored all four goals for the Eagles (2-5-1-1), his final tally of the night coming with 15 seconds to play. Wesley, a White Rock product, is second in the league with nine goals.
Jimmy Lambert and Tanner Wishnowski each pocketed a pair of assists for the Vipers, who got 20 saves from Ty Taylor.
Williamson and d-man Michael Young (2nd) produced the Viper goals in Nanaimo, where it was scoreless after 20 minutes. Williamson opened the offence at 1:49 of the second period, assisted by Niko Karamanis.
Vincent Millette (3rd) and Cal Babych (2nd) garnered goals six minutes apart to put the Clippers in front before Young equalized on a powerplay with 90 seconds to go in the period, from Lambert and Sandhu.
Tristan Crozier made it 3-2 Nanaimo 20 seconds into the third period with Wishnowski in the box for tripping.
Judson converted from Lansdell on a man advantage at 9:13 of the third period and netted the winner on a powerplay with 35 seconds left. D-man Chris Jandric and Sandhu drew assists.
Anthony Yamnitsky recorded 25 saves for the Snakes. Austin Roden made 22 stops for the Clippers (4-3-0-1), who gave up four powerplay goals on 10 chances.
“A lot of our penalties were stick penalties, which is not penalties we want to take,” said Clipper captain Jamie Collins. “We might take the odd boarding or roughing or something like that, but we’re not looking for lazy penalties with our sticks and reckless sticks and stuff like that. I think we just have to keep our feet moving.”
Ferner wasn’t sure what his lineup was going to look like Friday. Rookie centre Coleton Bilodeau was hit the hardest, missing the last two games with sickness.
“I don’t know. We’ll see what we look like on Friday.”
SNAKE BITES: Stapley is sixth in the league points derby with 6+6. Lambert is 10th with 3+8…Kale Howarth of the Trail Smoke Eaters, taken in the fifth round by Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2017 NHL amateur lottery, tops the loop with 10 snipes. The Red Deer product is the Player of the Week (POW) with 4+2…Howarth’s linemate Ross Armour has 6+11 for the points lead…Prince George Spruce Kings D Ethan de Jong has earned a scholarship with Quinnipiac University Bobcats in Hamden, Conn. for the 2019-20 season.
No comments:
Post a Comment