Bill Copeland Arena – Burnaby
Special Teams Prevail
In Vipers Victory
The Vernon Vipers blew out the Burnaby Express 8-1 in an afternoonaffair at the Bill Copeland Arena in Burnaby as the team netted twopowerplay goals, two shorthanded goals and a hat-trick from MikeCollins. Both teams played well to start the game before Bryce Kakoskeopened the scoring on a powerplay marker 4:45 in to the first period.Dylan Herold of the Express and Vernon?s Mike Collins swaped chancesrespectively to tie and give their clubs the lead but both were deniedby opposing goalies. The score remained 1-0 Vernon until Garett Noonanand Braden Pimm assisted on Collins?s 18th of the season.Cory Kane had a chance to put the Vipers ahead by one more goal 49seconds later but failed as Express keeper Harrison May reached acrossthe open cage to rob the unlucky centreman. Vernon however, continuedtheir offensive attack late in the frame and bumped the score to 3-0when Drew George snapped a two on one shot under the bar to beat Maywho had no chance on the play.
Burnaby started the second period with some intensity but it wasto no avail as Collins notched a powerplay marker with his second ofthe night and 19th of the season when he received a passfrom Jonathan Milhouse. The goal gave Milhouse his second assist of thecontest as the Vipers were allowed to hem the Express penalty killersin their own end without giving them the opportunity for making a linechange. Clay Wilson had a chance to break Graem Gordon?s shutout midwaythrough the stanza but was stymied at the top of the crease. This ledto Dylan Walchuk?s penalty and in turn a shorthanded two on one tallyby Braden Pimm.
Collins completed his three goal performance with less than 9:00minutes left in the game as his shorthanded effort chased May from thecrease in place of netminder Nick Enegren. May, could not be faultedfor any of the goals especially since the Express only had a handful ofshots on goal. The goaltending change made no difference in theimprovement of Burnaby?s play as Rich Manley took a 10 minutemisconduct penalty by roughing up a Vernon player in the neutral zone.Although his infraction was selfish and served no purpose it yielded atwo man advantage a short time later as Kane and Nils-Erik Soderlundtook two minute minors for tripping and interference. The Express usedthe 41 second man power advantage to close out the period and start thethird.
The onslaught continued in the third with the seventh Vipers goalas Kane and Kellen Jones connected with Connor Jones. Burnaby finallyhit the double digit mark with shots on goal on their fifth powerplaychance as Garrick Perry banked a shot off the side of the net. Manleywas ejected from the game with just over 5:00 minutes remaining. Hisinfraction led to the eigth Vernon goal scored and assisted by DanNycholat and Jonathan Milhouse while Malcolm McKinney was able to breakGordon?s goose egg for the lone Express goal. This was McKinney?s firstBCHL goal.
The victory gave Vernon their 16th consecutive road win of the season and 20thoverall placing them one shy of the BCJHL record of most back to backroad wins in a campaign by one club. It also gives them the opportunityto match or surpass their team record of 22 straight victories as theyplay two more games near the end of next week. During this time Vernonhas outscored their opponents 129-32.
Safir Lalji
Sunday November 22, 2009
Next game: Wednesday November 25th vs Surrey at 7pm.
