The Cranbrook Bucks wrapped up their three-game Interior road trip on Saturday night in Vernon, still looking for their first win of the trip against a stingy Vipers team.
Cranbrook had some early jump in their third road game in four days, outshooting the snakes 7-6 in an opening period that ultimately ended scoreless.
The tides turned heavily in the home-sides’ favour in the second period, as Vernon outshot the Bucks 14-3 and found the game’s first goal in the middle frame.
Vipers forward Isaac Tremblay snuck a backhand shot past Carter Capton in the Cranbrook net at 7:46 to open the scoring.
Tremblay’s third goal of the season was assisted Julian Facchinelli and Anson McMaster to give the Vipers a 1-0 lead that they would not relinquish.
Despite a 16-8 shots-on-goal advantage in the final frame, including several coming in a late push during the final minutes of the game, the Bucks could not solve goaltender Ethan David and the Vipers’ defence.
To quote Cranbrook’s play-by-play voice Wylie Henderson in the team’s post-game recap — the Bucks offense was “snake-bit” in this one.
David stopped all 26 Cranbrook shots he faced for his first shutout of the season, and fourth in the BC Hockey League.
In the Bucks’ crease, Capton stopped 27 of 28 Vipers shots in a losing effort — his first loss in the league.
Despite suffering the first loss of his BCHL career, Capton still boasts a 3-1-0 record with a sparking 1.34 goals-against-average, a .960 save-percentage, and one shutout in his first four career appearances.
The loss dropped Cranbrook’s overall record to 7-5-1 on the season, after going 0-2-1 and collecting just a single point on the road trip.
The Bucks are back in action on Friday, November 4 when they kick off another three-game road trip against Coastal Conference combatants versus the Nanaimo Clippers.
The game boxscore can be viewed here from the BCHL website, and the game highlights can be viewed below from Cranbrook YouTube Channel.
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