Vernon, BC: The 4 game home stand for the Vernon Vipers continues tonight as they host the BCHL’s league leading Coquitlam Express.
The Vipers (20-16-1-1) come in following a New Year’s Day loss to the Penticton Vees. Christian Felton had the only goal, his 3rd of the season. The Vipers are 6-4 in their last 10 hockey games, all of which were against the Interior Division. The Vipers are 13-9 so far this season against their own division. Vipers captain Connor Marritt has 3 assists in his last 3 games.
The Express (34-5-0-0) come into the game riding a 15 game win streak. They lead the BCHL in points with 68, 8 points more than the second place Penticton Vees. They lead the league in offense tied with two other teams with a 150 goals for and lead the league in defense with just 77 goals surrendered. They extended their win streak last night with a tight 4-3 win over the West Kelowna Warriors. In that game their powerplay went 3 for 3 jumping up to 3rd in the league. The Express are led offensively by Greg Lapointe. The 18 year old from Granby Quebec has 22 goals and 18 assists. In goal its been Clay Stevenson carrying the load. He is 25-2 in 27 games played including leading all goaltenders with a goals against average of 1.62. Before the game today, the Express acquired veteran defenceman Joey Berkopec from the Merritt Centennials.
This is the 2nd and final meeting between these teams with Coquitlam winning their first meeting 2-1 back in November at the end of the Vipers 11 game road swings.
You can buy your tickets right here: https://tickets.vernonvipers.ca/
If you can’t make it to the rink you can catch the game starting at 5:45 on 107.5 Beach Radio, Vernon Matters or HockeyTV
