With a Twitter handle of @Gervechkin and long-flowing hair like Jaromir Jagr, one almost wouldn’t expect the first goal of new year to come from anyone else but Bryce Gervais.
Reminiscent of a certain NHL’er, Gervais stretched out for a long pass, strode smoothly into the Vernon Vipers’ end and wired a shot past the goalie to notch the Penticton Vees first goal of 2012. This was enroute to 6-1 victory on Wednesday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre against a team who is supposed to be their toughest BCHL rival.
“I ended off the year not scoring for two games, so it was good to get back on my horse and hopefully I can keep putting the puck in the net,” said Gervais after the game, with his dark hair crammed tightly under a backwards hat.
The North Battleford-born player, who has averaged 1.3 points per game, grins widely when the topic of his hair is brought up. He often takes good-humoured jabs from his teammates about his flow, but he shrugs it off.
“My buddy passed away in the summer from cancer so that is who I am growing it out for. It’s a personal thing that I wanted to do for him, I will cut it off at the end of the year or whenever the time comes,” said Gervais.
But, judging from the Vees’ current record, the end of the season will be a long time from now. Even after a 17-day break from action, the Vees didn’t look like they lost a step, especially considering they were playing arch-rival Vipers, who they held to just four shots on goal until late in the second period.
“It was a frustrating game for us, obviously we wanted to come out and have a better start and that didn’t happen,” said Vipers sniper Michael Zalewski. “Once things pile up and we start going to the penalty box and they are getting some lucky bounces it’s easy to get frustrated. We have got to start doing a better job of battling through that.”
With five of their regulars out of the lineup, the Vipers were deflated after Gervais’ tally and two power play goals by the Vees in the first period. Not that the game was without the grit these two teams typically generate: Vees captain Logan Johnston went fisticuffs with Geoff Crisfield, which opened the door for some chippy play on both sides.
“It’s no secret we don’t like them, they don’t like us and whenever we play each other it’s going to be heated and that stuff happens,” said Zalewski, who was shown the locker room door late in the third for a misconduct and stoutly stated the loss had nothing to do with being awestruck by the Vees. “I don’t think it has anything to do with intimidation. It’s all inside our locker room and being more prepared to play night in and night out. We just weren’t ready to go tonight and that is all there is to it.”
The Vees gathered a 6-0 lead by the end of the second period with two goals from Travis St. Denis and one from Mike Reilly, also his second of the night. It wasn’t until midway through the third on a power play that the Vipers made an impact on the scoreboard with a rebound put past Vees netminder Michael Garteig by Aaron Hadley.
“I think it was important to get off on the right foot, and going into tonight we only had two more games against Vernon. Always against your top competition you want to make sure you stay on top of them and don’t give them confidence and we obviously showed pretty well tonight,” said Vees coach-GM Fred Harbinson.
The Vees now take their show on the road this weekend against Chilliwack and Salmon Arm.