The Home Building Centre Vipers appear serious about getting back to the B.C. Midget Tier 2 Hockey Championships.
The Okanagan Mainline champions ambushed Kelowna Rockets (Central Zone) 9-0 in Game of the best-of-three league final before 250 fans Saturday afternoon at Civic Arena. Game 2 goes Friday night in Kelowna.
Connor Johnston and Mika Burns each pocketed 2+2 for the Vipers, who won the league banner at 14-2. Kelowna was second at 9-4-3.
The Rockets struck iron, while Vernon’s Joe Eggert was robbed on a breakaway, all on the same early Kelowna man advantage.
Caden Bracken got the Snakes on the board with the winner by ripping a beauty, blocker side, post and in from the high slot off a nice feed from Stephane Richard with 4:36 left in the period.
Burns doubled that lead just 65 seconds into the second as he picked up a rebound in front off an Eggert shot attempt. Kyle Sherwood struck just over a minute later off the rush, blasting home a puck that the Kelowna tender couldn’t squeeze, assists going to Johnston and captain Dylan Sedlacek.
Eggert made it 4-0 by slamming home a gimme set up by the pretty passing of Burns and Dex Elders just over six minutes into the second frame.
Kelowna settled in and pushed back hard, looking to cut the deficit. forcing a strong breakaway stop from starter Kieran Watts and a couple more off the ensuing scramble as Vernon collapsed back down low in their own zone midway through the frame.
Things got heated as Richard took a major for a hit to the head with 6:09 left and was ejected, giving Kelowna a short 5-on-3 advantage. Kelowna took a minor before the major had expired.
Neither of Kelowna’s two coaches or Vernon’s head coach appeared on the bench to start the third period and the Home Building Crew opened the floodgates with Johnston tallying his first of two off a 3-on-1 rush at 15:29 from Elders. Johnston drew a penalty after the goal.
Eggert buried the prettiest goal of the afternoon a minute later on the powerplay, showing great patience alone in front after being set up by Burns and Elders.
Johnston picked up Vernon’s seventh on another powerplay, going top shelf off the rush with Sherwood and Harvey Pawsey drawing helpers.
Noren converted on the pp with assists to Johnston and Sherwood, while Burns went short side from a slick behind the net feed from Eggert and Sedlacek to finish the scoring. Watts stopped 22 shots. Kelowna took 37 penalty minutes and Vernon 27.
The provincials go March 19-23 in Port Coquitlam.
The Sun Valley Source for Sports Vipers lost their Bantam Tier 1 playoff final series to the league-winning Kamloops Blazers, 5-4 in overtime and 7-0. Both teams advance to the B.C. tournament since Kamloops is hosting March 19-22.
Zack Funk banked a shot off the Blazer goalie from behind the net as Vernon opened the scoring Saturday in Kamloops.
The Blazers tied it before Chris Reinhardt roofed a gem from in tight off a feed from Steel Quiring, who was parked behind the net. Kamloops equalized again and then just before the ice clean, Quiring jammed home his own rebound on the power play after a nice feed from tireless Cam Moger.
Kamloops registered two unanswered goals to take a 4-3 lead late into the third period before Funk buried a low shot glove side on a partial breakaway.
Five minutes of 4-on-4 overtime solved nothing with the Vipers coming closest to finishing things. Kamloops scoring machine Logan Stankoven converted the winner from the side of the net in 3-on-3 play.
Vernon goalie Kobe Grant made several spectacular saves to stymie the hard-charging Blazers, who picked apart the weary Vipers in Sunday’s shutout win. The Blazers were assessed 31 PIM, Vernon 25.
The Watkin Motors Mustangs lost 4-1 to the West Kelowna Warriors Saturday at Civic Arena, dropping the Okanagan Pee Wee Tier 2 final series in straight games.
Austin Roest, from Bennett Kuhnlein and JJ Milne, supplied the goal for the Mustangs. Matthew Kuhnlein suffered the loss.
“The boys had an incredible run this year.” said Vernon head coach Trevor Seibel “An overall record of 38-9-3, including 5-1 against Tier 1 calibre teams, speaks a lot to the progress made during the course of the year. We also won two of three tournaments entered, including the Coca-Cola Classic, and finished second in the third tournament. I am very proud of these kids.”
The Fix Auto Vipers and Kamloops are going to Game 3 in their Bantam Tier 3 final series.
Vernon took the series opener 3-1 Saturday in Kamloops before the Blazers rebounded with a 4-1 win Sunday at Civic.
Teja Sheldrake was spectacular in Vernon’s net Saturday at McArthur Island Sports Centre’s NHL rink.
Ben Reinhardt passed to Liam Remple for Vernon’s first goal a minute into the series. Reilly Teager nicely finished a play involving Cody Beckner and Jaxxon Collard to make it 2-0.
Kamloops responded before a wide open Ben Reinhardt connected from Jacob Green
The Blazers clicked on a powerplay with five minutes left in the second period to open the offence, getting their fourth goal into an empty net. Ronac Chauhan scored from Green for the Vipers.
The Kootenay Wild took two of three B.C. Midget Female AAA games against the Thompson Okanagan Lakers at Kal Tire Place.
Leading scorer Chanreet Bassi (Winfield) garnered 2+1 as the Lakers took Friday night’s first game 5-2. Samantha Head (Vernon) also supplied two goals, while rookie defenseman Tessa Kosec (Kelowna) scored her second of the season from the point. Cassidy Stasiuk (Kamloops) added 2 helpers as Ashlynn Neurauter (Kamloops) got the win.
The Wild managed three first-period goals and hung on for a 3-0 win Saturday in a penalty-filled game (56 combined minutes). The Lakers outshot the Wild 39-32 with Dani Strymecki (Kelowna) suffering the loss.
On Sunday, the Lakers carried the play and outshot the Wild 32-13 through two periods but found themselves down 1-0 when the Wild scored on a powerplay. The Lakers outshot the Wild 12-8 in the third but couldn’t solve a stellar Kaitlyn Daly in a 2-0 loss.
The Lakers are one point ahead of the second-place Northern Capitals and are on Vancouver Island to take on the fifth-place Seals in the final league weekend. The first-place Vancouver Comets will have a bye into a semifinal series March 17-19 as will either the Lakers, Capitals or Wild. Third and fourth will host a quarterfinal series March 10-12.
