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A great weekend of hockey has put the Community Savings Vipers right where they wanted to be with only one game that matters left this season. Saturday morning saw the Vipers who after regular season play, finished third in the six team league, squared off against the MGM Cobras who claimed sixth place in the league. Although the Viper’s had some success against the Cobras in the regular season they weren’t taking them for granted. The Viper’s were guilty of taking teams too easily in the last few games of the season and had their lunch fed to them as a result. Lesson learned! The Cobras came busting out of the gate and carried the play for the first five minutes. Our Viper’s weathered the storm and began to exert their dominance from that point on. In the first period the Viper’s jumped to a 3-0 lead. The line of Price, Miner and Leedahl were on fire as Cody Miner scored the first two of the game with Easton Leedahl chipping in the third. In the second period the teams traded goals with Leedahl scoring a beauty on a break away. MGM scored late in the third on the power play to make it a 4-2 game and keep the fans interested. With the goalie pulled for the last minute and thirty seconds MGM tried to apply heat but the steady play of the Viper’s held court. The Viper’s actually extended their lead as Stefan Bratzke placed a beauty of a shot from just outside the blue line, over the head of an MGM d-man, and into the yawning open net. The referee erroneously called the play off side and the goal was disallowed. Despite that the Viper’s skated away with a 4-2 victory and set themselves up for a berth in the semi-final game on Sunday morning. Will Gummow stood tall in the net for the Viper’s stopping 8 of 10 shots directed his way.
A stormy Sunday morning at the Red Deer arena, set the scene for the league semi-finals, The Trophy Loft Tigers were eagerly awaiting for the game to take place, after earning second place in the league and a bye in the first round of the play-offs. The betting lines in Vegas had the odds on the game at even after the Vipers and Tigers finished with the same number of league wins on the season and the Tigers holding a 2-1 lead in games won head to head over the season. The game almost didn’t get underway as the referees were sent to the wrong arena, the game began with the rink attendant strapping on some skates and grabbing a whistle and officiating the first 15 minutes of the game. Once things got started the action came fast and furious, the Vipers grabbed the first lead of the game on a short handed break-a-way goal by Jared Lower. A few minutes later the Tigers evened the score. Before the end of the period Carson Stuve potted 2 goals in a row and the Viper’s closed the period with a 3-1 lead. The Tigers came out firing in the second, scoring 2 goals to even things up at 3’s and with that the barn burner was on. The Viper’s and Tigers traded chances for the rest of the period until Austin Price decide to take matters into his own hands scoring late in the second to give the Viper’s the 4-3 lead after 2 periods. Not long into the third period Price rocketed his second goal of the game into the net and the Viper’s had a 2 goal cushion. With six minutes left in the game Price completed the hat trick with a nifty goal top cheese on a break-a-way. From there the stellar play of the Vipers defense took over and ensured that the Vipers would have a date in the league final next Sunday. Defensively Jordy Haraldson, Matt Cormack, and Austin Thorne had stand out games for the Viper’s. Nolan MacGregor tended the twine and collected the W stopping 25 of 38 shots directed at him. After the game Austin’s mom opened her Salon and the team went in for custom green dye jobs to their hair to get ready for the contest. Since it is St. Patrick’s day falls a couple of days after our final the hair will also work for that as well. Nice work Mrs. Thorne! We’re playing good and looking good. Things are looking positive for next weeks final. Stay tuned!
Weekend lessons prepare Vipers
Lead Team Reporter / Assistant Coach, Dan Lower is away on training in Southern California and has asked me to help fill in for him to report this weekend’s events. I know I have some really big shoes to fill… I’m mean really, have you actually seen the size of his feet! Anyways, here it goes…
Your Red Deer Vipers had a heavy dose of competitive hockey this weekend as they continued to prepare for the up-coming Atom B playoffs. The weekend’s action was kick started late Friday night as the Viper’s faced-off against a familiar rivalry; the Sylvan Lake Atom A Lakers. The two evenly-matched teams began exactly where they left off in the previous contests as they battled each other in a punishing, penalty-filled game. The referee’s attempted to gain control of the game and clean up the play. The Zebras sent players steadily to the penalty box from both sides as special team’s play became a key factor in this game. With penalty killers becoming quickly exhausted, the two teams traded short-handed goals; grabbing two exciting markers a side. Not much was decided after 2 periods of play and the Vipers entered the 3rd period dead-locked at a 3-3 score. Around the 3 minute mark of the period, Speedster – Easton Leedahl decided “enough is enough” and regained the lead. Shortly after, blue liner – Jordon Haraldson let go of a blistering shot from the point which seen some heavy traffic provided by Leedahl and Price in front of the Lakers goaltender. The shot easily found the back of the net and the Viper’s had the highly-coveted “insurance goal”… Unfortunately, the Lakers had other ideas, as they came storming back and crashed the crease of net-minder Nolan MacGregor. The Lakers fourth goal was not without a little controversy though, as the Referee and linemen needed extra time and some further review before making their decision. The Viper’s needed to step up their defensive play and hold off the Lakers last attempts to tie the game. However, during a quick series of events, the Vipers were caught “flat-footed” and the Lakers squeaked a lucky bounce by to tie the game with 40 seconds remaining. The time clock came to an end and another great game was in the books!
On Saturday morning, the Vipers wrapped up their league play as they squared off against the resurgent Superior Propane. The Vipers controlled the game for two-solid periods. Game play was highlight by strong positional play and tape to tape passing. In spite of this, the pesky Propane players would not give up. With a great team effort and late push, the Superior Propane pulled ahead late in the 3rd period. The Vipers pulled goalie Will Gummow in a desperate effort to tie the Game; coming close on several opportunities, they fell just short and let one slip by 7-6 in favour of the opposition.
The Hockey Extravaganza continued later that afternoon as the Vipers were scheduled for Game two of their double header that day; back in Sylvan Lake. The City of Champions sent their “Big Guns” down to compete against our Vipers. The game started off with a bang as one of Edmonton’s “Gunners” took the opening faceoff and scored in 9 seconds. Viper’s fans were holding their breath as the two teams lined up for another face off. Once again, the same “Gun-man” scooped up the puck and threw it into the net only 11 seconds later! Vipers player were stunned, wondering “what just happened?” The Viper’s Coaches settled the players down and focused the troops as they looked to re-gain their composure. With some great fore-checking and strong skating, the Vipers fought back and forced a 2-2 tie heading into the 2nd period. The two teams continued their epic battle throughout the second period as the Vipers held the Edmonton team to only one goal for the period. However, in the 3rd frame, the team from “Oil Country” came out determined and added two more scores. The Vipers did not give easily though as Crazy Legs – Stuve notched a quick goal to make things interesting and the team continued to press right till the buzzer. The Vipers did not disappoint as they provided another hard fought contest and entertained their fans.
During the final day of competition in Sylvan Lake, the Vipers were slated for a Match-up with the Edson AA Eagles. Apparently, the Eagles bus driver took a few wrong turns on the way out of Edson and ended up in the Sylvan Lake tournament by mistake. Being the good sports that the Vipers are, the team decided they were up for the challenge and faced-off against the Highly-skilled Edson team. The Vipers held the Eagles in check; limiting scoring through the first two periods and adding a goal of their own. Game MVP – Goaltender Nolan MacGregor was on fire as he turned away blast after blast by the Soaring Eagles. In the end, the Viper net minder made over 50 saves as the Vipers held Edson to their lowest scoring total of the weekend!
The weekend proved to be a great learning experience for the Red Deer Vipers and learned to “never let up and never give up!”
The Vipers have secured 3rd place in League Standings and head into playoff action this Saturday against the MGM Chiefs. Viper’s fans get your face paint on and get ready to cheer as our Vipers continue the quest to the Red Deer City Championship!
It was a weekend of fun for your Community Savings Atom B Viper’s. We were invited to an outdoor tournament to celebrate CBC’s Hockey day in Canada. Our games took place on a lake in the village of Alix, which is a small town about 30 minutes east of Red Deer. The organizers obviously did a whole bunch of work creating 8 outdoor rinks, organizing lunch for the players, and transportation around the town. It was the first attempt at something like this, and I would have to say it was a resounding success. The weather was beautiful, the hockey was fun (no raising the pucks, and all different tier levels), and the atmosphere was relaxed. All the Viper’s and many of their parents commented on the fun that was had. Please be sure to check out the picture section of the website as well as the video section to see pictures and video of the tournament action.
Sunday morning saw the Viper’s back in league action trying to nail down a playoff position by winning against Westward Parts. The game was a classic nail biter, the definition of a defensive struggle. The Viper’s scored a shorthanded goal in the first period, and rode that one goal lead into the third period on the back of outstanding goaltending by Nolan MacGregor. With one minute remaining in the third period Westward Parts pulled their goalie and threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Viper’s. They managed to sneak a lucky one by MacGregor with 50 seconds remaining in the game to tie the score up at 1-1. With 30 seconds remaining and the Viper’s buzzing in Westward’s end a Westward defenseman took a penalty for tripping. On the ensuing face-off the Viper’s won the draw back to Captain Austin Thorne who ripped a point shot off the post. That would be a close as the Viper’s would come to winning the game. Even though we tied the game it was one of those that felt like a loss since we dominated for most of the game. Next weekend the Viper’s will need to step up their game as they have been invited to play in an Atom A tournament in Sylvan Lake. Dedicated manager Chris Price will post a re-cap of the weekend for our loyal fans as this reporter is being sent on assignment to San Diego and will not be available to the team. In addition the Viper’s want to wish assistant coach Dean Burton well as he travels to sunny Scottsdale, Arizona to participate in the Wayne Gretzky fantasy camp. This is a dream come true for Coach Dean, he has been like a kid on Christmas Eve since he got the news that he was going. Our only worry is that coach Dean may pick up on some bad habits with the large number of ex-Oilers that participate in the camp. I’m not sure we could take him learning the Oiler whine of the 80’s, thankfully his Flames roots are deep enough I think any effects will be short lived. Have fun coach Dean.
Finally if Easton Leedahl gets to read this in the Dominican Republic, the Viper’s want him to know he is missed and they look forward to seeing him later this week.
You’ve seen this is sports time and time again. A team starts off slow, and then through hard work and dedication, they climb their way to the top. Once at the top they forget how it is that they got there. In a nutshell that’s where our Community Savings Viper’s find themselves after this weekend. Saturday morning saw the Viper’s suffer a power failure and lose a close 2-0 contest to the Trophy loft. If it was not for the sensational play of goaltender Will Gummow the damage would have been much worse.
Hoping for better results the Viper’s squared off against Superior Propane at the Kinex on the Family day afternoon and were handed a 4-2 set back. Both losses were characterized by sloppy play and the fact that we were out worked by the other team, that usually does not happen to the Viper’s. Now that we have our pesky winning streak done and out of the way, we can get back to playing Viper hockey. This set back could probably not happen at a better time. We have 2 league games left till play-offs begin and that should be lots of time for the boys to get back to playing hockey the Viper way. It’s much better to suffer a couple set backs now than it would be to be cruising along and be eliminated in a single playoff game. So we’ll count our blessings, hit the ice 6:45 AM Tuesday morning and start climbing our way back. Hang on fans it’s going to be a heck of a ride.
