Well it was a thrilling game as the lead up suggested it would be. The all-BCHL matchup between the Vernon Vipers and the Victoria Grizzlies was expected to be the best game in the preliminary round and apparently the script writers decided that it was too good to end after sixty minutes. In truely dramatic fashion both teams had to battle from behind in regulation time and that ultimately forced overtime.
The Vernon Vipers opened the scoring with the only goal in the first period, in the second the two teams would trade goals giving the Vipers a 2-1 lead with more than half of the game still remaing. Coming into the National Championship as arguably the best team in the field of five, the Vernon Vipers were well on the way to proving this through their first two games.
Conversly the Victoria Grizzlies were working hard to shed the moniker of host walk-on, especially after losing their first game with a short handed goal against with just 1.1 second remaining in regulation time. The Grizzlies answered that loss with a 5-0 shutout victory over the Central Region representative before turning their attention to a more familiar foe in the Vernon Vipers.
After coming back from the one goal deficit to tie the game only to go down a marker again, the Grizzlies found something that the Penticton Vees, Salmon Arm Silverbacks, Powell River Kings and Grande Prairie Storm couldn't in the post season ... the ability to beat Vipers netminder Andrew Hammond seemingly at will. The Grizzlies responded to score three goals in less than three minutes to take a commanding 4-2 lead into the third period.
After watching the host team fans develop a swagger, the Vipers slowly chipped away at the two goal lead scoring one early in the third and again with less than two minutes remaining to tie the game and force overtime. In the extra time, the Vipers completed the comeback leaving the Victoria fans heartbroken yet again. Perhaps the more sombre thought in all of this is the pressure that is now on the host team to finish the preliminary round with a 2-2 record to avoid a situation that would actually see the Grizzlies eliminated from the semi-final games.
The Eastern representatives, the Summerside Western Capitals are still looking for their first win at the tournament having lost to the Vernon Vipers and the Kingston Voyageurs. They know a win over the host team vaults them out of last place into that spot where anything can happen in a one-game winner-moves-on situation. The Vernon Vipers are almost assured of top spot seed for the semi-final game, that word was almost. A win on Wednesday over the defending RBC Royal Bank Cup Champions by the Voyageurs would actually put the pressure on the Vipers to hold onto top spot.
For the two BCHL representatives, it is almost completly opposite stories ... the Vipers appear to be rolling on and perhaps will have to be careful not to become their own worst enemy. For the Victoria Grizzlies, nothing seems to be going right ala the last second goal to lose in regulation time and now the late goal in regulation time that led to overtime and the overtime loss.
Four games remain in the preliminary round and, as was the case in Prince George in 2007, it appears that all of those games will have to be played first before seeding for the semi-final round will be finalized.
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