The Home Building Centre Vipers finished their regular season Sunday afternoon with a 7-2 win over Kamloops Blazers at Memorial Arena.
The same two Okanagan Mainline Midget Tier 2 Hockey Association teams meet in two weeks in a best-of-three first-round playoff series. Vernon won the league banner at 14-2. Kamloops finished at 0-12-3.
Stephan Richard got the Vipers started by slamming home a rebound at 16:02 from Kyle Sherwood and Harvey Pawsey. Joe Eggert made it 2-0 with a wraparound off the rush with the assist going to Mika Burns. The defence got in on the scoring spree with Lucas Wood ripping a hard wrister that got tipped in by a streaking Eric Noren at 5:25. Sherwood made it 4-0 Snakes with 0.5 seconds left in the frame, assisted by Noren.
Noren set up Sherwood’s second of the afternoon, connecting on a two-man advantage in the second with a high backhand snipe to make it 5-0. Kamloops clicked on a powerplay with a cross-crease tap in at 10:32 to get on the board.
Sherwood completed the natural hat trick with a rebound off the rush with Connor Johnston earning the assist at 7:42. Just 12 seconds later, Dex Elders completed Vernon’s onslaught with a low, glove-hand snapper assisted by Eggert. Kamloops replied on a 5-on-3 powerplay with two minutes to play. Ty Sedlacek took the win.
The Vernon Sun Valley Source for Sports Vipers finished the Bantam Tier 1 regular season with a 3-2 loss to the Kamloops Blazers Sunday at Memorial.
Vernon (9-5-1) finished second to the 10-4 Blazers in league play and begin the playoffs against the Kelowna Rockets in two weeks. The winner of that series will take on Kamloops in the finals.
Kamloops opened the scoring late in the first period banging a shot behind netminder Kobe Grant. The Vipers equalized when Steel Quiring knocked in the rebound off a hard shot from Colby Feist. Ben Imrich earned the other assist with a nice feed to Feist.
After Vernon fell behind 2-1, Zack Funk fired a nice wrist shot low, far side, after Feist carried the puck into the zone and fought off several Blazers before finding Funk in the open. Kamloops superstar Logan Stankoven finished the scoring by beating Grant high blocker side with a quick shot from the slot. The Vipers’ Porter Trevelyan played a great game shadowing the elusive Stankoven all game and nullified him for all but 10 minutes when Stankoven scored twice and assisted on a third. The Vipers were down three players with the flu.
The Coca-Cola Vipers surprised Kelowna 3-1 in a Midget Tier 3 Sunday matinee at Civic Arena.
Luc Halvorson converted a penalty shot for the winner, while other goals came from call-up Landon Currie and Jaden Foster.
The Coke crew lost 3-1 to the host Winfield Bruins Saturday with d-man Ethan Joe counting the Vernon goal.
The Fix Auto Vipers split their last two Bantam Tier 3 league tilts, grounding Kelowna 6-2 Sunday at the Capital News Centre after losing 3-2 to Kamloops Saturday at McArthur Island Sports Centre’s NHL rink.
Vernon, wh0 finished third at 11-3-2, had Kassidy Schaper-Kotter in net in Sunday’s win.
Vernon answered after a quick Kelowna snipe with a sweet pass from Jaxxon Collard to Lochlan O’Keefe for the finish. Two minutes later, Collard found an open Maddex Minard, who drove the net with success. Kelowna answered before Collard converted from O’Keefe.
The Fix Auto fourth goal saw Jacob Green sweetly set up Ronac Chauhan for the quick tap. Green then scored on a wraparound with helpers going to Chauhan and Ben Reinhardt. Green and Chauhan played keep-a-way for a few second before Chauhan buried the final snipe.
Collard, from O’Keefe and Minard, recorded the Vipers’ first goal in Kamloops. Fraser O’Brien scored on a quick wrister with helpers going to Jacob Wettlaufer and Reily Teager.
The Vipers, coached by Brent Bond, Dwayne Remple, Scott Palfreyman and Bruce Moore, open the playoffs Friday (8 p.m.) versus South Okanagan at Civic.
The Watkin Motors Mustangs ended the Pee Wee Tier 2 regular season by dispatching the last-place Salmon Arm Silverbacks 13-4 Saturday at Kal Tire Place.
Jarred Feist (4+1), Austin Roest (2+3), Deagan McMillan (2) and Bennett Kuhnlein (1+4) led the offensive charge, while Erik Pastro, Cash Anderson, Jace Weir and JJ Milne produced singles. Kyle Wheeler picked up two helpers in front of Matthew Kuhnlein.
The Mustangs finished second at 12-3-3. They host Kelowna in Game 1 of a best-of-three first-round playoff series Friday at Civic (5:45 p.m.).