SURREY, B.C. NOVEMBER 6th, 2016
The Vernon Vipers offense ran dry Saturday night in the provincial capital as Matthew Galajda turned aside all 22 shots he faced as the Grizzlies shut out the Vipers 3-0 at the Q Centre.
It took until the third period before the scoring would start, but not before some very solid defensive play from both sides. The Vipers looked good in the first and killed off a big 5 on 3 powerplay to get to the dressing room scoreless after 2.
Things went awry for the visitors on a Victoria powerplay as the Snakes failed to clear the zone and Lucars Clark re-directed a slap pass home to make it 1-0. The Vipers big opportunity came later in the final period thanks to a 5-minute major powerplay as Cole Pickup was assessed a major blow to the head penalty. It was the Grizzlies PK that came up strong blocking a lot of shots and converting two shorthanded goals, one from Tyler Welsh and one from Justin Michaelian. The Vipers continued to struggle with the man advantage and finished the powerplay with just two shots at the Victoria goal. Time would expire on the Vipers and they were shut out for the first time all season.
The Vipers will head back to the mainland to take on the Surrey Eagles Sunday afternoon at 4pm.
The roster might look a little different for Vernon as they suffered a pair of injuries as Chris Jandric left with a lower body injury and Jimmy Lambert didn’t return after taking the brunt of the Pickup major penalty.
Special teams will be a huge part of the game against the Eagles who are near the top in both PP and PK percentages. The Viper powerplay has struggled of late going a combined 0 for 11 in the last 3 games.
The Vipers can lean on the fact that they have played very well 5 on 5 on this road trip as only 2 of the 8 goals against have been scored even strength.
The Vipers will look to climb back to above .500 and you can catch all the action at 3:45 with the pregame show and the play by play at 4 on 107.5 KissFM and HockeyTV.
