Simply put, this was supposed to be a must-win for the Vernon Vipers with the Cranbrook Bucks idle, but instead it turned into the night their playoff dreams officially died. Trailing by eight points and needing to sweep their final games while navigating tough tiebreakers, the Vipers came out flat against the Blackfalds Bulldogs and suffered a 6-3 loss Friday night that eliminated them from contention, dropping their record to 14-29-7-0 and locking them into last place in the Interior West Division while Cranbrook locked up the final spot. The Bulldogs, battling the Brooks Bandits for top spot in the Interior East with the tiebreaker in their favor, got off to a strong start and never looked back, thanks in large part to two penalty-shot goals—Antoine Gauthier converting one midway through the first to make it 2-0 and Nick DiPaolo adding another in the third to push the lead back to three after Vernon had narrowed the gap with a late push. It was a rare feat too; after checking around, it doesn’t look like two penalty shot goals have been scored in the same BCHL game before, or at least not often enough to pop up in any records or recaps I’ve seen. Vernon showed some fight late with goals from Toms Trockis, Connor Dick, and Dario Lass, but the early hole was too deep, and now with just three games left, it’s all about finishing the season strong. Tough pill to swallow for the Vipers fans, sounds familiar to Bulldog fans. This is the second year in a row for the Vipers of missing the playoffs.
Magnuss Avotins opens up the scoring for the Bulldogs 1:09 into the game to make it 1-0 Bulldogs. The assists on the goal went to Nikita Mescheryakov and Oliver Kiraly.
Antoine Gauthier makes it 2-0 on a penalty shot at 10:28 of the first period. That marks Gauthier’s 5th goal of the season.
Shots on goal in the first period were 20-8
Thomas Neu makes it a 3-0 game 29 seconds into the second period with his 24th goal of the season. The assists on the goal went to Dean Toskos and Noah Mertz. That marked the end of the night for Vipers goalie Lane Maarhuis, who in all reality was at no fault on any goal and was playing a great game. Assuming they only pulled him to shake things up a bit because those goals would of went in on Patrick Roy in is prime.
Luke Dahlen finishes of a 2 on 1 with Joey Melo to make it a 4-0 game at 13:08 of the third period. The other assist on the goal went to Danny Hussa.
Shots on goal in the second period were 12-9 for the Bulldogs
Latvian Import Toms Trockis gets the Vipers on the board at 13:28 of the third period. The assists on the goal went to a couple of Euros in Russian Dmitri Kubanetsev and former Bulldog Oscar Bjork.
Former Bulldog Connor Dick makes cuts Vernons deficit by 2 at 13:38 of the third period on a goal that deflected of a Bulldog player, almost like they gave their old team mate a goal considering it will probably be one of the last junior games the 20 year old will play.
Nicholas Dipaolo scored on a penalty shot at 15:31 of the third period. That makes it a 5-2 game for the Bulldogs.
Slovakian Dario Lass gets the Vipers a goal at 16:17 of the third period making the game 5-3. The assists on the goal went to Stamford, Connecticut native Christian Maro and Shawn Leary.
Joey Melo fires the puck into the empty net to make it a 6-3 game. The assists on the goal went to Luke Dahlen and Krisjanis Sarts.
Shots on goal in the third period were 12-11 for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs outshot the Vipers 44-28 in the game.
Oliver Kiraly stopped 25 of the 28 shots that he faced for the win for the Bulldogs. For the Vipers Lane Maarhuis stopped 18 of the 21 shots that he faced until being pulled after the Neu goal that made it 3-0. He was replaced by Kamloops, BC native Jesse Sanche.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Oliver Kiraly 2) Luke Dahlen 3) Tomas Trockis
Attendance in Blackfalds was 852
Bulldogs next game is Saturday March 21st in Blackfalds against the Okotoks Oilers
Yeah, with the Vernon Vipers getting knocked out of the 2025-26 playoffs after that loss to Blackfalds, it marks their second straight season missing the postseason. They were already eliminated back in March 2025 during the 2024-25 campaign—finished well out of the running in the Interior Conference (or West division setup) with a rough record around 15-33-6 or so, and articles from that time called it a disappointing year where they couldn’t close the gap on the playoff spots. Before that, though, they had been pretty consistent about making it in; reports mention the last time prior to 2024-25 that they missed was way back in 2013, so this current two-year drought is the first time in over a decade they’ve been on the outside looking in for back-to-back seasons. Tough stretch for a franchise with such a loaded history of deep runs and championships earlier on, but hopefully they can turn it around soon with the young talent and whatever changes are coming. Fans have to be itching for a return to form.