VERNON STAFF STAYING PUT
The Vernon Vipers recently announced that head coach Mark Ferner and assistant coach Jason Williamson have inked contract extentions. The deal brings great stability to the Vipers for years to come. Ferner played 15 years of Pro Hockey including 91 games in ‘the show’ and was the head coach of the Kamloops Blazers in 2005/2006 after serving as an assistant for 3 years.
GAME 4
Tonight’s Game 4 is without question the biggest contest of the season for the Vees. A Vipers win would leave the blue, black and white 2 down heading back to Vernon for Game 5, While a Vees win would saw off the series at a two wins apiece. Last night was the first ever post-season loss at the SOEC for the Vees, they were 3-0 coming into Game 3.
Another tough call for Fred Harbinson between the pipes tonight as 17-year-old Sean Bonar was solid, but did lose last night.
Glenn Hauptman, Flush Photo. No copies or reproduction without permission. FlushPhoto(at)Gmail.com
MURTAGH SAVES THE DAY
With Kevin Jebson on the sidelines, the Westside Warriors got a huge 3-2 win at home last night. Devon Murtagh stopped 44 of 46 Salmon Arm shots in his first start of the post-season. The Warriors now pull within a game of the Silverbacks, with an opportunity to tie the series tonight at home.
INTERIOR INJURIES
Second season scratches are mounting in the Interior Conference. The Vees already without gifted play-maker and captain Denver Manderson and uber-talented rear-guard Matt Ridley now have AJHL pick-up Kaare Odegard day-to-day with a lower body injury. Odegard hasn’t played since Game 4 of the 1st Round in Prince George.
The Westside Warriors missed drafted defender Justin Schultz for games 1 & 2 of their 2nd Round match-up with Salmon Arm. The top D-man in the Interior Conference played last night but is far from 100%, and was used primarily on the man-advantage. Michael Quinn has pick up the slack on the blue line recording 7 assists in 6 post season games. Kevin Jebson (as mentioned above) is also nicked.
The Silverbacks Mark Zengerle didn’t play last night in Westside. The BCHL’s #2 scorer in the regular season was taken out by Brad Plumpton (who earned his second straight game misconduct last night) on the PP and may be back for the weekend.
Vernon is the only Interior Conference club at full health.
