By Sheldon Spackman

Vipers capture second-straight HJHL title

Mar 26, 2018 | 9:06 AM

The Red Deer Vipers are celebrating back-to-back Heritage Junior Hockey League titles.

This after a 4-2 victory in game three of their best-of-three league final series against the Coaldale Copperheads at the Servus Arena in Red Deer Sunday night.

The first period saw Coaldale get on the board first in this one however, as Ryan Tessemaker got one past Vipers netminder Branden Bilodeau at 7:25 to make it 1-0 Copperheads.

Red Deer responded before the period expired though as Ben Shushkovsky scored on the power play at 19:14 to even things back up heading into the first intermission.

In the second, Coaldale reclaimed their lead when Riese Nevil earned himself an unassisted goal at 3:35 to make it 2-1 Copperheads.

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It was all Vipers after that though as Logan Linnell scored on the power play at the 11:50 mark to tie it back up again at 2-2.

Red Deer then took their first lead of the game when Logan Linnell potted his second of the night at 17:01, this time a short-handed goal to make it 3-2 Vipers after forty minutes.

The third period saw Logan Linnell add one more for the Vipers at 17:19 to make it a hatrick on the night and give Red Deer a commanding 4-2 lead with less than three minutes to play.

That led to Coaldale pulling goaltender Nolan Berner with 2:22 to go but they were unable to score, making it a 4-2 final.

Shots on goal finished 39-31 in favour of Coaldale, with the Copperheads going 0 for 5 on the power play and Red Deer 2 for 6.