Vipers sweat out opening win

Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet

Cowichan goaltender Lane Michasiw stops one of 41 shots directed his way. Despite his heroics, Cowichan Valley still fell 2-0 to the Vernon Vipers in the BCHL season opener for both teams.

It's the kind of game that tends to turn a coaches hair grey - very quickly.

The Vernon Vipers completely dominated the Cowichan Valley Capitals Friday afternoon but needed two third period goals to eke out a 2-0 victory.

It was the opening game of the Bauer BCHL Showcase event in Chilliwack and the first regular season game for both teams.

After peppering Capitals netminder Lane Michasiw with more than 30 fruitless shots the Vipers finally goal on the board when Thomas Aldworth broke the deadlock with a shorthanded goal 7:09 into the final frame.

Just 68 seconds later Ayden MacDonald scored an unassisted goal to give the Vipers a bit of breathing room.

"I liked our compete level throughout three periods tonight," says interim Vipers head coach, Kevin Kraus.

"We never gave up even though we couldn't solve their goalie for two periods. We kept going and in the third period they were just going in for us."

For the first game of the year, Kraus says he'll take it.

"We're still jelling, we're still trying to get our offensive touch.

But I'm happy with our work ethic. There are still some D zone things we can work on so we'll look forward to going tomorrow night."

Veteran Danny Todosychuk turned aside all 13 shots he faced for the shutout. It was just his second career shutout, his first coming during his rookie campaign three seasons ago.

Todosychuk is one of just five players returning from the team that won the Interior Division title a year ago and hosted the RBC Cup.

Kraus says it will take a few games for everyone to gel.

"We only returned five players so that's obviously something we have to gain here throughout the first couple of games of the season...just getting some momentum going and some chemistry going," says Kraus.

"But we have a lot of veteran guys coming in that have junior hockey experience so there's a lot that they can add to the rookie players."

The Vipers play their final game of the Showcase Saturday afternoon against the Victoria Grizzlies.

One other game Friday afternoon saw The Salmon Arm Silverbacks hold on for a 4-2 victory over the Langley Rivermen.

Nick Hutchison hit the empty net with 22 seconds left in regulation time to seal it for Salmon Arm.

The goal came just nine seconds after the Rivermen connected on the power-play to cut the deficit to one.

Andrew Farny, Thomas Plese and Carson Bolduc also scored for the Silverbacks.

Salmon Arm headed home after the game.

They don't play again until Sunday evening when they tackle the Surrey Eagles.