Red Deer Vipers 5, Sylvan Lake Wranglers 2
The Red Deer Vipers jumped out to a four-goal first period and held on for a 5-2 win over the Sylvan Lake Wranglers at Servus Arena on Saturday, in a game that featured a lengthy second-period brawl.
Red Deer wasted no time, with Brodie Van Riper opening the scoring on the power play just 6:51 into the game. Mason Hastings made it 2-0 at 13:06, Deegan Panas added a third at 15:05, and Hastings struck again — this time on the penalty kill — with 16 seconds left in the period to make it 4-0 after 20 minutes.
Lenny Beddoes extended the Red Deer lead to 5-0 just 24 seconds into the second period. The frame then turned chaotic at the 12:15 mark, when a multi-player fight broke out: Red Deer’s Brett Leslie was ejected with a game misconduct on a major penalty plus a head-contact minor, Sylvan Lake’s Parker Harrison picked up a fighting major and an instigator minor, and Red Deer’s Brodie Van Riper was also tossed with a game misconduct for a second fighting major. No further goals were scored in the period.
Sylvan Lake got on the board in the third with goals from Karson Ledieu at 10:42 and a power-play tally from Bode Dakin at 13:50, but it wasn’t enough to threaten the Red Deer lead in the 5-2 final. The third period was heavily penalized on both sides, with Dakin picking up back-to-back misconducts and a game misconduct in the final minute.
Red Deer’s Cole McLean made 31 saves on 33 shots for the win. Sylvan Lake’s Marlo DeRosa stopped 43 of 48.