The Vernon Vipers struck the first blow in the Doyle Cup with a 3-1 win at home Friday night over the Spruce Grove Saints.
A scoreless first period resulted in large part due to the work of Saints goalie Vincent Marozzi who turned aside 18 shots in the opening frame including a tough right-toe save on Michael Zalewski in the early going.
Marozzi and the Saints penalty killers were tested again as they went two men short for almost a minute-and-a-half around the seven-minute mark but displayed a sound triangle structure to kill off the penalties.
Spruce Grove's best scoring chance of the first 20 minutes came when Sammy Spurrell broke in alone only to be caught by Vipers defenceman Malcolm Lyles who poked the puck away.
In the second, Vernon opened the scoring just past the six-minute mark when Marcus Basara banged in a loose puck lying in the crease after a Darren Nowick shot trickled through Marozzi. The home side made it 2-0 at 17:10 when Nowick, just as he was running out of room, directed home a feed from Zalewski before crashing into the end boards.
The Snakes went up 3-0 in the third on a power play goal from Dylan Walchuk who one-timed home a shot after Dane Muench's failed wraparound attempt.
Spruce Grove broke Kirby Halcrow's shutout bid at 7:44 of the third when defenceman Dustin Fostvelt fired a puck that had bounced back out to the slot past a sprawling Halcrow.
The Saints came close on a power play shortly after when a Felix-Antoine Poulin shot hit Halcrow and then bounced off the post. The visitors pulled Marozzi with a minute left and called a timeout shortly after but couldn't generate another goal.
Saints head coach Jason Mckee felt too many of his players took the night off but felt it could have still been a different outcome had Poulin's shot found it's way in.
“We hit the post there on one and obviously it would have been nice if would have gone in,” said Mckee. “Even our power play, it was just having guys willing to do the work to get the puck back. With the fundamentals… we just didn't execute well tonight.”
Some emotion did enter the game at times with some ferocious open-ice contact on display that was much to the liking of Vipers captain David Robinson.
“Yeah, it was good, I like that stuff; it's playoff hockey,” said the Vernon native. “For two teams that it's their first time meeting each other, I thought it was good intensity and it was a good playoff game.”
Fans hoping for more of the same can check out Game 2 of the Doyle Cup Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Wesbild Centre in Vernon.
