The Vernon Vipers traveled to West Kelowna hoping for an important two points but instead dropped a 5-2 decision to the West Kelowna Warriors Tuesday Night. The Vipers went into the game 13 points back of the 3rd place Warriors and tied for 4th pace with the Trail Smoke Eaters with 37 points each in the Interior Conference.
West Kelowna would open the scoring just 32 seconds into the game on a goal by Garret Forster while the Snakes’ Odeen Tufto would tie the game up 7 minutes later. Just 60 seconds into the second period Christian Cakebread would give the Vipers a 2-1 lead but that would be all the scoring Vernon could muster as the Warriors would score 5 unanswered goals including two 35 seconds apart in the 3rd period and an empty netter.
Vernon’s Brendan Barry got the start in goal and made 36 saves on 40 shots while West Kelowna’s Matthew Greenfield stopped 27 of 29.
Special teams struggled, as neither team could find the back of the net with the extra attacker…Vernon went 0/4 while West Kelowna was 0/6 on the power play.
The Vernon Vipers have another tough road game as they travel to Salmon Arm this Friday to take on the 2nd place Silverbacks. Game time is 7:00pm. Don’t forget you can catch all the play-by-play action starting at 6:45 with Graham Turnbull and the pregame show on 107.5 KISS FM and online here!
