Vipers narrowly defeated by Aces

By MorinvilleNews.com Staff

Legal – The Vipers were dealt a couple of rough hands over the weekend. Saturday night’s home-ice rematch with the Onoway Ice Dogs was cancelled due to inclement weather and Sunday’s road game to Athabasca ended in a 7-6 loss to the Aces, largely due to the Vipers being deprived of five forwards and last season’s MVP defenceman Adam Gialet.

Despite the shortage of manpower, the Vipers came within one goal of driving the contest into overtime, a situation that would have netted them at least a point for their troubles.

The club ended the opening frame trailing Athabasca 4-1, but came back in the second period to score another four goals to Athabasca’s three. Entering the final frame trailing the Aces by two goals at 7-5, the Vipers worked hard to close the gap – Paul DeChamplain scoring the Vipers’ sixth midway through the period. However, it was to be the Vipers’ last of the contest.

The loss brings the clubs record to 10-5-0 on the season and positions them in fourth spot in the North Central Hockey League, seven points and two games behind the third-ranked Slave Lake Winterhawks.

The Vipers next game is also their next home game. They take on the 5-11-1 Hinton Heat Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. Last Saturday’s cancelled game against the Onoway Ice Dogs is scheduled for Jan, 19 in Legal; however the time was not confirmed by MorinvilleNews.com press deadline.

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