Deuces are wild with the Vernon Vipers.
As they head into BC Hockey League weekend play, two more players have joined the Vipers; two more have left; and the Snakes have two critical conference games along Highway 97 as their playoff push continues.
In are forwards Coen Miller, born in 2006, from Bedford, Nova Scotia, and Malcolm Baar, also born in 2006, from Otttawa.
Out is forward Simon Binkley and defenceman Landon Pappas. Both have left the Vipers to pursue other opportunities.
Miller began the season with the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League's Saint John Sea Dogs before sailing west, making a brief stop with the BCHL's Powell River Kings. He had two points in three games on the Sunshine Coast.
Baar joins the Vipers from the Devon Xtreme of the AJHL, where he recorded 20 points in 49 games. Prior to his time in the AJHL, he was a standout player at Kimball Union Academy, a private school in Meriden, New Hampshire, averaging more than a point per game.
Binkley, who turns 19 on Valentine's Day, had six goals and 10 assists for 16 points in 35 career games with the Vipers. The native of Fairbanks, Alaska has committed to post-secondary hockey in his home state at the University of Alaska.
Pappas, 19, from Airdrie, Alta., had four assists in 24 games this season with Vernon.
The Vipers have used 49 players since opening night Sept. 20.
The BCHL trade deadline is Monday, Feb. 10.
The Vipers (11-20-6-0) board the bus bound for Penticton tonight, Friday, Feb. 7, and a date with the league- and conference-leading Vees (30-6-2-0). Vernon will travel down Highway 97 again Saturday to West Kelowna. The Warriors are 15-17-5-2 entering a home game this evening with the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, and currently hold down seventh place in the Interior Conference.
The Warriors are five points behind the sixth-place Cranbrook Bucks starting the weekend, two points ahead of the Okotoks Oilers, and three points up on the ninth-place Spruce Grove Saints.
The Vipers are in 10th place, five points behind Okotoks for the last playoff spots.
Penticton is five points ahead of the second-place Trail Smoke Eaters, and six up on the third-place Brooks Bandits.
Sherwood Park Crusaders sit fourth, and the Silverbacks are fifth.
