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The Atom B regular season got underway with a bang Saturday morning. The Community Savings Vipers were up against a familiar foe in the Westward Parts Green Hornets. Fans of the Vipers will recall that in last weeks exhibition game against the Hornets the Vipers clawed their way back from a 3-0 deficit in the third period to tie the game. With the knowledge that they had the ability to do this, all that stood between the Viper’s and their first win of the season was Westward Parts and the previous Halloween evening of late night revelry and sugar fueled shenanigans.
The game started out the tight defensive battle that most media types predicted it would be. With a minute and forty seconds left in the first period the Hornets finally hung one up on the board and lead 1-0. Goaltender Nolan MacGregor played fabulously stopping many scoring chances before finally succumbing to the onslaught of Hornet shots. MacGregor came up huge with 10 minutes left in period 2 when he stopped a Green Hornet on a clear break a way from center ice. With Nolan’s half of the game in the books he was replaced by the Viper’s other netminder Will Gummow. With 4 minutes remaining in the second period the Hornets were able to slip a sneaky one past Gummow and lead 2-0. It was starting to look like deja vu all over again. During the second intermission Coach Parada reminded the kids to keep playing hard, keep their legs moving and things would be OK. His words turned out to be rather prophetic as the start of the third period saw the Viper’s come storming out of the gates and the scoring came fast and furious. Three minutes and twenty seconds into period 3 Austin Price banged home a nifty feed from Hammer Burton and the score was 2-1. Four minutes later Price got his second goal of the game making it tied at 2-2. Carson Stuve assisted on the play. There was obvious consternation from the Green Hornet bench and the Viper’s coaching staff encouraged the Viper’s to keep it up. Three minutes after that Viper’s captain Austin Thorne went end to end, in a Bobby Orr like rush, and potted the go ahead goal making it 3-2 for the Viper’s. At this point it looked like the Hornet’s might fold up their tent and head home, but to their credit they kept plugging away and 2 minutes later with 13 minutes left in the game they tied it up at 3-3. We were in the middle of an old fashion barn burner. With 8 minutes left in the game Carson Stuve accepted a pass from Brandan Hart, came out of the corner and put the Viper’s up 4-3. One minute after that the Hornet’s tied it up 4-4. Jared Lower blocked a Hornet point shot and then got the puck up to Carson Stuve who streaked in on a break a way from his own blue line, burying a shot by the Hornet goaltender and putting the Viper’s in the lead again 5-5. Unfortunately with 2 minutes left in the game the Hornet’s were able to score one last time and the match ended in 5 all tie.
After the game, Coach Parada had words of praise and encouragement for the squad, and announced a series of recognition awards to be given out after each game. Please see the Guts & Glory link on the team webpage to see this weeks Stars of the game. In addition the coaching staff will be handing out a Green hard hat to the hardest working Viper in each game. The winning player is required to sign the hat, and wear it out of the dressing room and back to the next game where it will be rewarded to someone else. Will Gummow was the inaugural winner of the Green hat award.
This week the Viper’s have a practice on Monday evening and then dry land training at the teams new work out facility on Tuesday and then some mandatory rest time to get ready for a Saturday morning match up against Fargey’s Paints. Stay tuned for a video highlight of this weeks action as well as a video documentary of the Viper’s rigorous dry land training program that they began last week.
Dear Viper’s Family,
On behalf of the entire Viper’s team, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who have graciously donated to our team. Your support has already and will continue to go a long way by ensuring our boys have a full, productive and fun year!
Again, a special thanks to:
Nicole & Rainer Bratzke – Ranic Welding Ltd.
Jeff & Jacquie Leedahl – Echo NDE
Graham & Trudy Haraldson
Greg & Christina Thorne
Ross & Melanie Stuve – Quatro Tech Industrial Services
Ken & Yolanda Keith – Hart
Also a big thank-you to everyone else who has pitched in to get our season rolling!
Chris Price
The Community Savings Vipers were a loose bunch, on Saturday morning at Red Deer’s Kin City Arenas. The coaches had a game plan; every player knew what they had to do and were anxious to get it done in their second pre-season game of the year. Standing between the Viper’s and their first victory of the season were Westward Parts, also losers of their first pre-season game of the year. Both teams wanted to head into the first regular season game of the year next week with a win under their belts.
The first two periods were a see-saw battle with both teams having great scoring chances denied by the netminders. Viper’s Goaltender Will Gummow stood on his head and shutout the opposition for his half of the game. Not till the 3 minute mark of the third period did the red light get lit up and unfortunately it was in the Viper’s end. The goal seemed to light a fire under Westward Part’s, it was only the brilliant play of Viper’s twineminder Nolan McGregor that kept the game from being a complete blow out. Westward Part’s were able to score two more goals and led the contest 3-0 half way through the third period. The Viper’s special teams were on fire over that stretch as they killed off a 5 on 3 power play and two 5 on 4 powerplays.
It was a penalty by Westward Part’s that started the Vipers comeback with 6 minutes left in the third period. Carson Stuve and Hammer Burton started the show, when Carson fired the puck from the top of the face-off circle and Hammer Burton crashing the net tipped the shot in. With one minute and thirty seconds left in the game Jordan Haraldson blasted a point shot on net and Cody Miner gobbled up the rebound and banged home his first goal of the year to get the Viper’s within one. A spectacular save by goalie Nolan Macgregor on a breakaway by a Westward Part’s defenceman led to a rush up the ice by Austin Price who was able to score with 31 seconds left in the game. Red Deer media have been referring to the scorching hot last 6 minutes of the game as “The Comeback”, and even though the game ended in a tie it felt more like a win. Stay tuned next week same time same place when the same two teams face each other again in the first regular season tilt of the year.
The 2008-2009 hockey season for Red Deer’s hotest new Atom team "The Vipers" kicked off with a bang on Sunday morning at the Red Deer Arena. The score doesn’t really matter at this point, the main objective of having fun was achieved. Check back to this site often for updates and information on the Vipers season.
