North Okanagan teams had yet to lose at five provincial minor hockey championships.
The Vernon Sun Valley Source for Sports Vipers clinched a berth in today’s semifinals at the B.C. Tier 2 Bantam finals in Salmon Arm with a 4-0 win Tuesday over the Campbell River Tyees. Both teams were 2-0 heading into the contest.
Drew Mackenzie, Eric Noren, Nic Teale and Nicholas Bolin scored for the Vipers while Tyler Sedlacek recorded the shutout.
The Vipers scored 14 seconds into their opening game and rolled to a 5-1 win over the Cranbrook Hornets. Colby Feist, Lee Christensen, Bolin, Cole Johnson and Trevor Kennedy scored for the Vipers, who then took care of the Williams Lake Timberwolves 4-1 on goals from Teale, Bolin, Noren and Corbin Hanson.
The Vernon Home Hardware Centre Vipers opened up the Midget Tier 2 B.C. championships in Prince George with an 11-0 victory over the Fort St. John Flyers.
Vernon pressured the Flyers all game long, ending up with more than 70 shots on the Flyers goalie.
Stephane Richard led the Vipers with a hat trick while Carl Main and Joe Eggert each had a pair. Singles went to Reed Cashato, Dex Elders, Connor Johnston and Gage Kopp, who scored on a beautiful end-to-end rush in his last Midget appearance as he is heading off to Europe with his school.
Defenceman Logan Imrich chipped in with four assists and Grady Caton had a pair of helpers. Conor Webb earned the shutout.
Vernon beat the Castlegar Rebels 6-2 Tuesday afternoon before finishing off against the host Prince George Cougars tonight in their final round robin game.
The Vernon Watkin Motors Mustangs are 4-0 at the B.C. Tier 2 Pee Wee finals in Fort St. John.
Vernon downed previously unbeaten North Delta 8-2 in a potential championship preview Tuesday afternoon. Steel Quiring led the offence with 3+2 to support Cayden Hamming’s solid play in goal. The Vipers dumped the Burnaby Winter Club 7-0 with Hamming getting the shutout.
Quiring had two goals while singles went to Austin Roest, Jakob Jones, Connor Elliott, Ronac Chauhan and Jarred Feist added singles.
Zackary Weir had 2+2 and Roest scored a deuce as the Mustangs whipped the host Fort St. John Flyers 10-2. Quiring (1+3), Jones, Feist, Chauhan, Jacob Boden and Porter Trevelyan had the other goals in support of netminder Teja Sheldrake. Quiring and Zack Funk each scored three times as Vernon blitzed the Quesnel Thunder 7-1.
North Okanagan Knights are 3-0-1 at the Bantam Tier 4 provincials in Golden, following a come-from-behind 5-3 win Tuesday over Windermere Valley.
The Knights, down 2-0 heading into the third period, got two goals each from Nick Walker and Kord Haller and a single from Easton Hunter.
The Okanagan champs opened with a 12-2 romp over the Taylor Tornados.
Haller led the winners with three goals, Eli Dwyer and Griffin Evans added a deuce while singles went to Walker, Bryan Brew, Wes Graves, Michael Kormany and Brandon Matvenko in support of winning goalie Caedon Bellmann.
North Okanagan settled for a 4-4 draw in game two against the Langley Eagles.
Wyatt Fowler was in goal for the Knights while Brett Harder (2), Matvenko and Ryan Desilets handled the scoring.
Bellmann got the shutout and Dwyer added a hat trick in a Knights 8-0 romp over the host Golden Rockets Monday.
Single goals went to Walker, Kormany, Brett Zbytnuik, Harder and Alex Gilowski.
The host North Okanagan Knights sat at 1-0-2 after their first three games at the B.C. Tier 4 Pee Wee championships in Armstrong and Enderby.
The Knights and Vancouver Thunderbirds played to a 4-4 draw at the Enderby Arena Tuesday morning, with the T-Birds scoring the tying goal with 30 seconds left in regulation.
Dawson Martin scored twice for North Okanagan with singles going to James Walker and Darius Makse. North Okanagan took on the Kelowna Jr. Rockets Tuesday night in Armstrong.
On Monday night, Mason Buzzell’s goal was the difference as the Knights edged the Prince Rupert Seawolves 3-2.
Buzzell’s centering pass went off a skate and past the Seawolves goalie in the second period to give North Okanagan a 3-1 lead. Jordan Zbytnuik and Devon Jameson had the other goals for the Knights, who opened Sunday with a 3-3 draw against the Fernie Jr. Ghostriders.
Walker deflected a shot from the high slot through the goalie’s pads with three minutes left in regulation time to give the Knights the draw.
Martin had the other two goals for North Okanagan, who play the Langley Eagles tonight at 7:15 p.m. at the Nor-Val Sports Centre in Armstrong, then wrap up the preliminary round Thursday against the Vanderhoof Bears at 1:30 p.m. at the Enderby Arena.
The championship game is Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Enderby.