In the battle for second in the BCHLâs Interior Conference, the West Âé¶čAV Warriors were snake-bit, losing to the Vernon Vipers 4-3 in overtime.
The Warriors had a great start, getting out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. At the 4:11 mark of the frame, Isaiah Norlin scored his second goal of the season. Later in the period, Johannes LĂžkkeberg scored his fourth goal of the campaign on the powerplay.
Vernon got within one before the end of the period when Julian Facchinelli scored at the 19:44 mark of the first period. It was his fifth of the season.
The teams traded goals in the second period FrĂ©dĂ©ric DeschĂȘnes made it 3-1 for the Warriors early in the period but Erik Pastro got the Vipers back within one on the powerplay, making it 3-2 for West Âé¶čAV after two periods.
Norlin assisted on LĂžkkeberg and DeschĂȘnesâ goals, giving him a three-point night.
It remained 3-2 for the majority of the third period until the 18:36 mark when Georgios Stavrianeas scored for Vernon to tie the game 3-3 and send it to overtime.
Overtime didnât last long as Vipersâ Connor Elliott scored his first goal of the season 57 seconds into the extra frame to give Vernon the 4-3 win and move the snakes win streak to seven.
âIt wasnât a work of art,â said Vipers assistant coach Colton Sparrow. âThose are hard games to win in that rink against a good team. I give a lot of credit to our players because they hung in there. They didnât quit and they found a way to win.â
Vipers goaltender Ethan David made 21 saves in the win while Rorke Applebee made 34 saves in the loss.
With the win, the Vipers improved to 7-1-0-0 and now sit atop the Interior Conference while the Warriors are now 6-2-1-0, third in the conference.
These two teams will complete the home-and-home series on Friday, Oct. 20 when they take the ice at the Kal Tire Centre in Vernon. Game time is at 7 p.m.
âWe didnât have our best showing tonight, but we never gave up,â said Vipers Captain Connor Elliott. âWe managed to battle our way back into the game and were rewarded with the OT win. We know we need to play better on Friday.â
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