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Vipers blank Wild to take playoff opener

Feb 29, 2020 | 9:37 PM

It was pretty much the perfect start to the playoffs for the Vernon Vipers.

Reilly Herbst stopped all 30 shots fired his way to backstop the Vipers over the Wenatchee Wild 3-0 Saturday night in Wenatchee Washington.

The Vipers lead the best of 7 series 1-0.

Connor Sleeth, Ryan Shostak and Connor Marritt scored in each period to handle the Vernon offence which only managed 17 shots on Wild goalie Daniel Chenard.

Two of Vernon’s goals came on the power play before a crowd of 2,036 at the Town Toyota Centre.

“I thought special teams were the difference tonight, those are always important,” said Vipers head coach Jason McKee. But that aside, our five-on-five game, our compete level down low, our battles won, our races, being underneath pucks in certain areas and above in others. I thought our decisions were good and that allowed us to win the hockey game tonight.”

Game 2 is Sunday in Wenatchee at 7:05 p.m. with the pre game show on 1075 Beach Radio starting at 6:50 with Graham Turnbull.

Elsewhere Saturday, Salmon Arm shut out Victoria 4-0 to take a 2-0 series lead.

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