The Watkin Motors Mustangs took the long way to the Okanagan Mainline Pee Wee Tier 2 Hockey League playoff finals.
The defending provincial champions dispatched the Penticton Vees 6-2 Sunday at Kal Tire Place in Game 3 of the semifinal series. The Vees forced the extra tilt after posting a dramatic 6-5 overtime win Saturday at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Jarred Feist opened the scoring late in the first period, finishing off a sweet passing play with Austin Roest and Jace Weir.
Penticton equalized in the second after some scrambly play in the Vernon end. The Mustangs re-took the lead a few minutes later as Nick Noren converted with assists to Brock Holliday and Tyler Burke.
Goaltender Austin Seibel took over after that by making multiple acrobatic saves to keep Penticton off the board.
Feist buried his second of the game on a beautiful one-timer from the slot after a fabulous feed from Roest with just three seconds left in the period. Tyler Burke drew the secondary assist.
A defensive breakdown early in the third led to a 3-on-1 for Penticton. Seibel made the first save but Penticton buried the rebound.
The Mustangs recovered and added three goals in the last half of the period from Cosmo Wilson, Noren and Cash Anderson.
In Game 2, less than 12 hours after winning the series opener, the Mustangs came out very sluggish in the early-morning contest.
Feist opened the scoring early in the second period for the Stangs. However, some undisciplined and sloppy play cost the Mustangs and they were down 4-1 with less than five minutes to go in the middle 2o.
Some line juggling seemed to fire up the Mustangs as they rattled off four consecutive goals from Roest, Feist, Pastro and Bennett Kuhnlein to take a 5-4 lead with seven minutes left.
Penticton levelled things with less than a minute remaining in regulation, and the goalie on the bench, to send it to overtime. The first period of 4-on-4 OT solved nothing so the teams went to sudden-death 3-on-3.
A blocked shot sent the Penticton player in on a breakaway from the red line. Seibel got a piece of the shot but the puck squeaked over the line.
Vernon opens the best-of-three final Friday night against the West Kelowna Warriors at Royal LePage Place. Game 2 goes Saturday, 1:15 p.m. at Civic.
The Sun Valley Source for Sports Vipers swept their semifinal series against the Kelowna Rockets in Bantam Tier 1.
Steel Quiring connected with 2:02 left in double OT as the Sun Valley crew won 3-2 Saturday afternoon at the Capital News Centre. Vernon won 7-1 Friday night at Civic Arena.
Vernon took a 2-0 first-period lead in Game 2 on snipes by Cameron Moger and Zach Funk before the Rockets tied it in the second on powerplays.
Kelowna had a late power play but Vernon killed it off behind the strong goaltending of Cayden Hamming.
Vernon, who had one regulation goal and one OT snipe waived off, got clutch assists from K.T. Walters, Trevor Kennedy, Mason Robinsson and Connor Elliott.
In Friday’s opener, Colby Feist counted four goals and singles came from Porter Trevelyan, d-man Isaac Thomas and Quiring in front of Kobe Grant. The defensive pairing of Elliott and Ben Imrich combined for five assists.
Vernon now meets the Kamloops Blazers in the zone best-of-three finals starting Saturday night at Memorial Arena. The second game is slated for Sunday, 1 p.m., at Kal Tire Place.
The Vernon Home Building Center Vipers ambushed host Kamloops 9-0 Saturday at Memorial Arena to sweep their Midget Tier 2 semifinal series.
Eric Noren, Joe Eggert, Mika Burns, Damian Coljee-Fehr and birthday boy Tyson Sampert, in his first game back from injury, gave Vernon a 5-0 lead after 40 minutes. Kieran Watts made a marvellous breakaway stop.
Connor Johnston (2), Noren and Caden Bracken completed the offence in the final 20.
Vernon will now face Kelowna in a much anticipated league final as the teams finished 1-2 in the regular season. Game 1 is Saturday at Civic (3:45 p.m.).
The Coca-Cola Vipers lost their Midget Tier 3 semifinal series versus the South Okanagan in straight games, falling 2-1 in overtime and 4-1.
Chris Moore scored in Saturday’s loss at Civic, assists going to Landon Currie and Lincoln Connor.
Currie forced OT Friday night in Osoyoos with three minutes left to play. South Okanagan recorded the winner 13 seconds into overtime.
The Fix Auto Vipers bounced the Winfield Bruins 7-6 in a thrilling third and deciding Bantam Tier 3 playoff game. Winfield forced Game 3 with a 3-2 win Saturday night at home.
The goals started right away Sunday with Jacob Green passing to Ronac Chauhan for a one-timer and a quick Vernon lead. The Bruins equalized six minutes later.
Maddex Minard fed Jaxxon Collard for a great finish and a Vernon lead before some great passes from Ben Reinhardt and Chauhan to Green for the one-timer made it 3-1. Winfield answered before the first period ended.
Vernon came out very sluggish in the second and gave up three quick unanswered goals before taking a timeout.
Ben Reinhardt quickly hit Chauhan, who saw open d-man Trevor Moore, who wound up and scored.
Moore skated the puck up ice on a penalty kill and passed to his dee partner Liam Remple, who tied it 5-5 and sent fans into a frenzy.
A minute later, O’Keefe passed to Ben Reinhardt, who found Green for a quick wrister top shelf.
Jaxxon Collard made it 7-5 Vipers on a beauty wrap-around before Winfield replied on a fray in front with 79 seconds left.
O’Keefe and Ryan Vandesande scored for Vernon in support of Teja Sheldrake in Saturday’s contest.
Vernon now takes on Kamloops in the finals, starting Saturday at McArthur Island Sports Centre NHL Arena. Game 2 goes Sunday, 1:30 p.m., at Civic.
In Senior Atom Rep play, the H&L Glass Wolfpack stormed host West Kelowna 8-3 behind four goals by Charlie Swartz.
Hudson Kibblewhite garnered 2+1, whole Ollie Reid, with 1+2, and William Highway completed the offence. Jeffrey Curtis pocketed two helpers.