Vernon, BC: For the third time in as many years, the Vernon Vipers will square off with the Wenatchee Wild in the BCHL postseason starting tonight at the Town Toyota Center.
The Vipers (30-24-2-2), defending Interior Division Champions, come into the post season after dropping 2 to West Kelowna last weekend. The Vipers finished the month of February with a 3-4-0-1 record. Matt Kowalski led the way offensively with 61 points in 58 games. He was the only Viper to draw in to every game this season. However, the playoffs are a completely different animal and this is a group who have been playing playoff hockey from the time the calendar changed over. The Vipers have 6 players on their roster who were a part of the run last season and the experience gained is invaluable.
The Wild (30-23-4-1) also dropped their last two games, getting one point in an OT loss in Penticton on Saturday. Before the weekend, the Wild had a solid stretch of games that saw them win 7 straight including a 5-2 win over the Vipers on Feb. 14. The Wild had a solid PK at 81.1% but what was most impressive was they were the least penalized team in the BCHL. The Wild use a scoring by committee philosophy with 7 different players registering at least 30 points. Nick Cafarelli led the team in points with 40. Rookie standout Brett Chorske suited up for all 58 games and finished with 39 points. He was the only Wild player to suit up for every game.
Head to head in the regular season the Vipers had the edge with 4 wins and 2 losses. The Vipers were 3-0 at home and 1-2 in Wenatchee with the lone win on the road coming in a shootout. The Vipers saw Daniel Chenard in goal for every matchup and that’s not expected to change in the playoffs. The Vipers had 4 different goalies make appearances in the head to head meetings.
Head to head stats:
Vernon
Dawson Holt – 5G 2A, Cam MacDonald – 4G 2A, Matt Kowalski – 3G 2A, Connor Marritt – 4A
Wenatchee
Sam Morton – 1G 4A, Drew Bavaro – 1G 4A, Tanner Main – 5A, Brett Chorske – 3G 1A.
The Vipers outscored Wenatchee 23-19.
You can catch all the action of game 1 starting at 6:45 with the pregame show on 107.5 Beach Radio, Vernon Matters or HockeyTV.
