Morning Star Staff
Eli Dwyer scored twice as the North Okanagan Knights dispatched the Salmon Arm Silvertips 4-1 in Sunday’s final of the Vernon Midget Tier 3 Hockey Snakepit Classic at Civic Arena.
Mason McLennan, with the winner midway through the first period, and Michael Kormany also connected for the Knights, coached by Dave Evans.
North Okanagan reached the final by brushing back Quesnel 5-4 Sunday morning at Priest Valley Arena. Griffin Evans, Cody Huber, Nick Walker, Matthew Dolinar and Clayton Thielman supplied the snipes. Dwyer pocketed a pair of helpers.
The Knights tied Merritt 4-4 in the Saturday 6 a.m. special and then clipped Vanderhoff 2-1 Saturday night in preliminary play. Keaton McCune produced the equalizer versus Merritt with 87 seconds to play. McLennan drew the assist.
Jaxon Cummings and McLennan, with the late winner, provided goals against Vanderhoof. Dwyer and Wesley Graves had assistson the winner.
The host Coca-Cola Vipers toppled Columbia Valley 5-2 Sunday to place fifth in the 10-team affair.
Chris Moore, with 2+1, Chris Aldrich, affiliate Landon Currie and Drew MacKenzie handled the Viper attack. Lincoln Connor hadtwo assists.
The Vipers lost 6-5 to Quesnel and tied Kamloops 3-3 in Saturday preliminary tilts.
Jadon Foster, Lucas Halvorson, Dayton Bryan, Jacob Brewer and Currie counted goals versus Quesnel, while Currie (2) and Cole Martin converted against Kamloops.
The Home Building Center Vipers shut down Kamloops 5-0 in Midget Tier 2 play Saturday. Vernon outshot Kamloops 72-19 and grabbed an early lead as Caden Bracken tipped in a point shot by Dylan Sedlacek with the other assist going to Harvey Pawsey at two minutes.
Connor Johnston potted the second snipe with assists going to Sedlacek and Eric Noren less than two minutes later. Sedlacek converted 29 seconds later with Johnston and Kyle Sherwood collecting assists.
The Vernon d-men were hungry for offence with Lee Christensen burying a loose puck, unassisted, at 4:33 of the second frame. Mika Burns connected on a sweet snipe off a Noren assist with 1:56 left to play. Kamloops pulled their goaltender in an attempt to break Tyler Sedlacek’s shutout bid. Vernon improved to 11-2 in league play.
The Home Builders crew were scheduled to play West Kelowna Sunday night but the Warriors forfeited due to injuries, suspensions and a lack of available call-ups since their Tier 3 team was playing in the Vernon tournament.
Kobe Grant earned the shutout as the Sun Valley Source for Sports Vipers battled the Kelowna Rockets to a rare scoreless tie in Bantam Tier 1 action Saturday morning at Kal Tire Place.
Vernon was without two regular d-men and their leading scorer. Play went back and forth with both goalies playing well. Vernon visits the Kamloops Blazers for a Sunday matinee at Memorial Arena with the winner taking the league title and a first-round playoff bye.
The Watkin Motors Mustangs lost 12-6 to the West Kelowna Warriors in Pee Wee Tier 2 play Saturday nightat Royal LePage Place.
Austin Roest (2+2), Jarred Feist (2), Kyle Wheeler (2) and Jace Weir (2A) handled the Mustang attack in front of Matthew Kuhnlein.
The Mustangs close out the regular season with a pair of home games: Friday, vs Kelowna, 6 p.m., Priest Valley Arena and Saturday, vs Salmon Arm, 10:45 a.m., Kal Tire Place.
The Fix Auto Vipers shaded South Okanagan 3-2 and dispatched Penticton 7-5 in Bantam Tier 3 league games.
Vernon scored once in each period Saturday at PV with Owen Palfreyman clicking in the opening 20 with assists going to Lochlan O’Keefe and Damian Glover.
Vernon enjoyed a 5-on-3 powerplay in the second period and Jaxxon Collard circled a feed to Jacob Greenfor a blistering finish. Cody Beckner and Maddex Minard combined to set up O’Keefe for the winner in support of Kassidy Schaper-Kotter.
Minard pocketed 2+2 and Teja Sheldrake went the distance in net as Vernon stopped Penticton Sunday at Kal Tire Place.
D-man Trevor Moore passed it up to Green, who quickly found Ronac Chauhan, who deked and buried the fifth goal. Blueliner Fraser O’Brien assisted on Minard’s insurance tally. Collard, from Minard, added a second extra snipe.
It was 3-3 before the Fix Auto crew counted two goals in 40 seconds. Minard drove to the net after a sweet pass from O’Keefe and then Ryan Vandesande hit O’Keefe, who went top cheddar. Green, from Ben Reinhardt, opened the offence., Collard, assisted by Minard and O’Keefe, produced the second goal.