PHOTO: Lisa Mazurek
Three first period goals and 27 saves from Joseph Quintilio helped the Spruce Grove Saints to their 9th victory of the season, knocking off the Vipers by a 3-2 score in Vernon at Kal Tire Place on Friday night.
The Saints capitalized on an early power play with Brendan Russell taking a five-minute major for a blindside hit on Brady Witkin in the neutral zone, who did not return to the game and the Saints took advantage of the ensuing power play with the first of two opening period goals from Felix Haiböck.
Declan Waddick sent a feed from inside the left point to the glove side of Vipers goaltender Oliver Kanat where Haiböck directed the puck into the open goal for his 5th goal of the season just eight seconds into the power play to give the Saints an early advantage.
After a quick start and outshooting the Vipers by a 10-3 margin, in large part because of the power play, Vernon turned up the 5-on-5 pressure and tied the game just underway halfway through the opening period with Russian forward Dmitrii Kubantsev collecting a rebound and putting a shot through the legs of Quintilio to even the score.
Spencer Rheaume had an answer for the Saints just over five minutes later with his 4th goal of the season. Frederic Deschenes let a shot go from the left point that hit the crossbar and left post before Rheaume got under his defender in front of the net and beat the glove side of Kanat to give the Saints a one-goal lead.
The Saints second power play of the opening period had a similar result as the first attempt and came from the same player as Haiböck pushed the Saints lead to a pair of goals. Carson Lloyd had his cross ice pass knocked down by Brandon Funk who had the puck roll to Haiböck who threw the puck through the legs of Kanat for his 6th goal of the season to give Spruce Grove a 3-1 edge into the 2nd period.
Vernon came on strong at the start of the 2nd period and converted to get within a goal as Sam Charko found a loose puck in the slot and beat Quintilio with the shot to make it a 3-2 game.
Quintilio stood tall the rest of the way, including making a big breakaway stop on Kubantsev with the right pad with one of his 12 second period saves.
The Saints tightened up defensively in the 3rd period, allowing just four shots in the final period and helped them to their 9th win of the season. Quintilio turned aside 27 of the 29 shots for his 4th win of the season while Kanat stopped 31 of the 34 shots he faced in his 5th loss of the season.
The Saints look to make it back-to-back victories on Saturday night as they head to West Kelowna to take on the Warriors. Puck drop is slated for 8:00 PM MST from Royal LePage Place with the game broadcasted on the Saints Radio Network as well as streamed online on FloHockey.
