The Vernon Vipers must like playing the Prince George Spruce Kings.
They keep finding ways to beat them.
Wednesday night in Vernon the Vipers topped the Spruce Kings 2-0, their seventh win in eight tries against Prince George this season.
Zack Tonelli scored both Viper goals, both in the second period, to put the Vipers in the driver’s seat. The 20-year-old son of former NHL forward John Tonelli, deflected in Talon Zakall’s point shot five minutes into the period and notched his second of the game at the tail end of five-minute Vernon power play. That came with 43 seconds left in Austin’s Fraser’s major penalty for head contact and the puck went in off Tonelli’s glove, 10:36 into the second.
The Spruce Kings outshot the Vipers 10-3 in the third period and 22-15 in the game but could not beat goalie Ethan David, who recorded his third shutout of the season while improving to 7-4-0-3.
Aaron Trotter took the loss in net for Prince George.
The Kings dominated play in the opening period, in which they had three power-play chances, but the Vipers limited them to just six shots and they couldn’t score. Trotter had just three shots to stop in the opening 20 minutes.
The Kings ended up 0-for-5 on the power play. The Vipers cashed in one of their two chances.
The Vipers and Kings will face each other one more time this season, March 11 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, one of six remaining games on the Kings’ regular season schedule. The teams could quite conceivably face each other in the firs-round B.C. Hockey League playoff series. If the Interior Conference standings don’t change. The Kings currently rank third (25-12-3-8-0, .635 winning percentage), while the Vipers are sixth (22-17-4-3-0, .554).
The Kings will try to shed their five-game losing streak Friday night in Penticton against the first-place Vees (37-7-0-2-0, .826), then head to Salmon Arm for a date with the second-place Silverbacks on Saturday.
Fraser won’t play in either game this weekend. His five-minute major penalty and game misconduct carries a minimum two-game suspension, which is subject to review by the league. He was suspended for two games by the league Dec. 18 for checking-from-behind penalty.
