Vernon, BC: The largest crowd of the year got their money’s worth in the entertainment department as the Vipers rallied from a three-goal deficit in the third period to force overtime, before ultimately falling 6-5 in a shootout to the Cranbrook Bucks.
The Vipers opened the scoring after an even first ten minutes. Anson McMaster’s point shot got through traffic making it 1-0. Kellan Hjartarson evened it up late in the period with an unassisted goal. In the final minute, the Viper powerplay struck for the second time in as many games as a Reagan Milburn one-timer rippled the twine giving the home side a 2-1 lead after 1.
The Bucks came out the gates flying in the second period. Although they didn’t convert on an early powerplay, they did generate some looks and most importantly momentum. Kellan Hjartarson evened the game up with a deflection on a point shot from Jack Silich. Cranbrook took their first lead of the night on a Noah Quinn powerplay marker. The Bucks would go on to add two more in quick succession from Nick Peluso and Cam Kungle to go into the dressing room leading 5-2.
The Vipers thought they cut they deficit, but a Max Borovinskiy goal would be waved off due to incidental contact with the goaltender. That didn’t deter the home side as Isaac Tremblay scored his fourth of the season 9 minutes into the period. Moments later, Luke Pakulak jumped on a rebound to make it 5-4 before the media timeout. Cranbrook defended a bit harder following the media timeout, but the Vipers were able to get the goalie pulled late and Seiya Tanaka-Campbell scored his 5th of the season with just 53 seconds remaining to force overtime.
Nothing was solved 3 on 3 and in the shootout Dylan Compton was the only Viper to find the back of the net. Jack Silich and Nick Peluso scored in the skills competition to give Cranbrook the 6-5 win in the shootout.
The Vipers will host Langley on Saturday night at 6pm.
