The bottom continues to fall out on the Vernon Vipers season, as they lost back-to-back matchups against tough BCHL conference opponents.
The Vernon Vipers faced a gauntlet of a weekend schedule, facing off against two of the top three teams in the Interior Conference standings in 19 hours.
Game one of the weekend was in Trail to face the iron-hot Smoke Eaters, who were riding an eight-game win streak.
Just seven minutes into the game, Trail was up 2-0, as Christian Kim and Dylan Lariviere took advantage of two Vipers penalties to score on the man advantage.
With five minutes left in the frame, Will Schumacher clawed one back for the Vipers, scoring on the visitors' first power-play opportunity of the night.
In the second period, Jason Stefanek scored his team-leading 21st and 22nd goals of the season to put the Smokies up, 4-1.
It was more of the same in the final frame, as Trail's Drew Anastasio, Cade De St. Hubert and Lucas Lemieux all scored in the first six minutes of the period to put the game out of reach. While Luc Bydal scored the next two for Vernon, Max Hense's first of the season iced the game, 8-3 for Trail.
The win kept the Smokies in second place in the Interior Conference at 57 points, five behind the Penticton Vees.
On Sunday afternoon, Vernon returned home to face off against the Brooks Bandits, a team looking for revenge after being doused, 6-1, by Penticton on Saturday.
Koji Gibson scored first, nabbing his fourth of the season on the power play to give the Vipers the lead heading into the break.
In the second, Brooks quickly responded, scoring two goals in 21 seconds to take the lead. Jace Letourneau and Caden Drury each scored their seventh of the season.
Kyren Gronick tied the game up, with his third of the season four minutes later. However, Keith McInnis broke the tie for Brooks at the 11:24 mark of the frame.
With the one-goal lead, the Bandits stretched their lead 22 seconds into the third with an unassisted short-handed marker from Cooper Pierson. Mathis Dufour and Letourneau then padded the Bandits lead to 6-2.
Talan Blanck nabbed one goal back for Vernon, with his seventh of the season, but that was not enough, as Vernon lost 6-3.
Brooks' Chris Quizi stopped 28 of 31 shots for his second win of the year. Logan Cunningham made 27 saves for the Vipers, taking his first loss of the year.
Vernon (11-20-6) is 10th in the Interior Conference at 28 points, sixth points out of the final playoff spot.
It won't get easier for the Vipers, as the Vees are next on the schedule on Friday, Feb. 7, from the South Okanagan Events Centre. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.