The Vernon Vipers gave their hometown fans the perfect going away tribute as they won their last game to be played in Vernon this season. Their 6-2 win at the Vernon Civic Arena gives the BCHL Champs a 2-0 series lead heading to Grande Prairie for the remainder of the Doyle Cup Championship.
The Alberta Champs actually opened the scoring in the first on a Bobby Tyson market just over five minutes in but penalty trouble gave the Vipers their opportunity and they took full advantage. Sahir Gill, Kellen Jones, and Cameron Brodie all tallied with the man advantage to give a Vipers a 3-1 lead heading to the second period.
Bryce Kakoske extended the Vernon lead with the lone tally in the middle period. Chris Crowell gave the Vipers a 5-1 lead midway through the final period before things got interesting.
The third featured some rough stuff as emotions boiled over with both Elias Grossman and Josh Juell receiving match penalties for the Storm with just 26 seconds remaining.
The Vipers got another solid performance by Andrew Hammond as the netminder turned aside 21 of 23 shots and made several key save when needed.
The series will now shift to Grande Prairie for the remainder with the winner advancing to the RBC Cup in Victoria.
Friday Recap…
In the end, the shots were lopsided but the score was close. For the Vernon Vipers, however, both fell in their favour.
After falling behind 1-0 on a Morgan MacLean tally in the first period, the Vipers shot back with a pair of unanswered goals and cruised to a 2-1 win. Braden Pimm, at 6:44 of the second period, and Connor Jones, at 2:54 of the third, brought Vernon from behind to clinch the victory.
Chad Carder, with with 36 saves, picked up the loss for the Storm while Andrew Hammond, who turned aside just 14 Grand Prairie opporunities, picked up the Game 1 win.
The series resumes Saturday night at 7:00 PM at the Vernon Civic Centre. Should the Vipers win once again, the series will shift to Grand Prairie for Game 3. If the Storm prevail, however, the series will remain in Vernon for Game 3 on Sunday night.
For live action of Saturday night's game, tune in to live Pay-Per-View through the BCHL homepage.
