The North Okanagan Super Hockey League playoffs will feature 96 games in 11 days starting tonight.
The Butcher Boys Devils needed a monster win to take the sixth and final A side playoff spot in the Pee Wee league and they delivered by brushing off the Bannister GM Blazers 3-2 Sunday at Kal Tire Place. The Devils took sixth spot at 8-9-1, two points back of the Blazers.
Austin Vandenbrand, with a deuce, and Hunter Farrell handled the Butcher Boys offence in front of a stellar Kristi Vassberg.
The Devils, who bowed 7-0 to Askew’s Silver Stingers of Salmon Arm Saturday at the Shaw Centre, were coming off a solid weekend where they bounced the Scotia Bank Bears 8-1 and clipped the North Okanagan Knights 4-3.
Dylan Hatalcik, Brady Devries and Farrell each scored twice versus the Bears, singles going to Derek O’Callahan and Ashton Sutch with Vassberg in net.
Vandenbrand, Hatalcik, Farrell and Ty Whitney tallied against the Knights.
In the Bantam Super League, the battle of Vernon went to the Five Star Awards Rebels as they cooled off the DCT Chambers Cougars 8-1 at PV Arena.
Seven minutes in, Maisun Ang-Hamilton gathered a Caleb James feed, churned up the ice, and snapped the puck upstairs. With 12 seconds left in the first, Cougar Ashton Pede equalized with a low slapper from the high slot.
The Rebels blew the game open with four goals in a six-minute span in the second period. First, Quinn Soon located Jayden Veit on the right side, and he threaded a pass through legs to Ang-Hamilton, who whisked in a backhander.
Then, with James and Morgan Martens jamming away in front, the puck squirted back to Soon, who made a quick lateral move for a shooting lane before pinpointing the bottom corner: 3-1.
Ang-Hamilton completed his hat trick a minute later, slipping the puck through the five-hole after a give-and-go with Veit. Next, Braydon Beese raced into Cougar territory to retrieve Owen Swiscoski’s dump-in, and threw it back to Tyler Kruysifix, whose point blast scorched the short side.
Late in the frame, Beese and Ang-Hamilton struck for goals on solo dashes. In the third, the Alexis sisters, Robyn and Bailey, combined to send Ang-Hamilton into the Cougar zone, where he set up Beese’s one-timer.
The White Knights and Black Knights tied 3-3 in a battle of North Okanagan Atom teams sponsored by McDonald’s, Saturday.
Waylen Stowards, Kade Blair and Aidan Wattie scored for the White Knights, who took the banner at 16-1-1.
The Corbett Office Kings grounded the Talon Benefits Thrashers 8-1 Sunday at PV to spoil the Thrashers’ bid for a undefeated Midget season.
Landon Currie, Riley Bos and Nathan Tully each counted two goals for the Kings, who finished second at 13-4-1, three points behind the Thrashers (13-1-4).
Aaron Botterill and Brandon Lehoux added singles for the Kings, while Jaden Steinke answered for the Thrashers.
Currie pulled the hat trick as the Kings dispatched Blackburn Excavating of Salmon Arm 5-3 Saturday night at PV.
Brogan Houston and Lehoux produced singles, while d-man Liam Hennig pocketed three helpers in support of a solid Ethan Huizinga.
Houston and Nick Hartwig scored as the Kings tied the Vernon Authentic Trophy &Plaque Hawks 2-2 in an inter-city game Monday night at Civic.
Austin Moore and Landen Harison had goals for the Hawks.