Newcastle Vipers caught cold at start
Nov 22 2010 The Journal
THE Vipers paid dearly for being caught cold at the start of the third period.
In under a minute the puck was bypassing netminder Charlie Effinger and hitting the back of the net twice, giving the Panthers a 3-1 lead and setting the Vipers on course for their second home defeat of the weekend, after losing by the same 4-2 scoreline to the Hull Stingrays on Saturday.
Twenty-four points separated the two sides at the start of play, but during the early exchanges anyone new to the game wouldn’t have realised that it was the Panthers who were second in table and the Vipers ninth.
The Vipers’ first attack produced a shot on goal and also drew a powerplay. During the man advantage Toms Hartmanis’s shot beat Craig Kowalski on his glove side, but struck the netminder’s right-hand post.
Kowalski then had to deal with another four shots in quick succession and during a Panthers’ powerplay he had to use his legs to prevent Dale Mahovsky from scoring a short-handed marker.
The Vipers went a goal behind while two of their players, Sam Zajac and Mike Prpich, were sharing the home penalty box, David Clarke’s low slap shot giving netminder Charlie Effinger little chance. It was the 100th goal Effinger has conceded this season.
On 12 minutes the Vipers found themselves in the position of having seven minutes of powerplay and it took them just over two to equalise. Paul Sample sent the puck across the crease from right to left and at the far post Hartmanis smacked it instantly into the goal.
With Alex Penner’s penalty still running, the Vipers then had two minutes and 37 seconds of five on three powerplay which they wasted.
The Vipers were unlucky to have had a goal disallowed during the subsequent five on four powerplay and during an early second period man advantage the player who thought he’d scored earlier, Dan Speer, broke through on goal but shot into Kowalski’s chest.
Effinger had faced 21 shots during the first two periods and unfortunately for him and his team shot 22 and 23 both flew over his blocker and into the net.
Billy Ryan put the Panthers ahead and just 37 seconds later Marc Levers made it 1-3 with a shot that crossed Effinger’s body on its path into the net, the goal being timed at 41 minutes.
The Whitley Bay ice rink became very quiet after the goal, but the home fans were cheering and banging seats again when player-coach Danny Stewart shot over Kowalski’s blocker from point to successfully conclude a powerplay on 48 minutes. It was game on again. But with five minutes left on the clock Guillaume Lepine banged the puck home from the front of the crease to make it 4-2.
Leading 2-1 with eight minutes left in the match, the Vipers conceded three goals in six minutes to lose to the Stingrays on Saturday night at Whitley Bay.
The Vipers, for whom forward Prpich was making his debut, went ahead thanks to a second minute success by Mahovsky and their advantage was doubled on the half-hour when Hartmanis shot the puck through netminder Christian Boucher’s legs.
Only a minute was left in the middle period when Jerome Tendler cut the deficit with a shot that flew across netminder Effinger’s body and the Stingrays drew level on 51 minutes through Ryan Lake, who scored from the edge of the crease.
Andrew Coburm shot over the diving Effinger to give the Stingrays the lead on 53 minutes and Tendler made sure of victory when he fired home a shorthanded marker just under four minutes later.
VIPERS SCORERS (SUNDAY): Hartmanis 1+1, Stewart 1+0, Mahovsky, Rzeszutko & Sample 0+1.
PANTHERS SCORERS: Clarke 1+1, Levers, Lepine & Ryan 1+0, Myers 0+2, Bellamy, Lee, Neilson & Zion 0+1.
VIPERS SCORERS (SATURDAY): Hartmanis 1+1, Mahovsky 1+0, Forsbacka and Prpich 0+1.
STINGRAYS: Tendler 2+0, Coburm and Lake 1+0, Uusivirta 0+2, Cloutier, Dulle and Reid 0+1.
