Greater Vernon Minor Hockey’s Championship Monday wraps up the North Okanagan Super League season.
Championship and consolation games will be played Monday in the Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget house divisions.
The Pee Wee final will go Monday, 5:45 p.m., at Armstrong’s Nor-Val Sports Centre. The consolation final is Monday, 5 p.m., at Kal Tire Place North.
In the Bantam division, the championship game is in the Shuswap, 6 p.m., at the Shaw Centre’s Hucul Pond. The consolation final is in Lumby at the Pat Duke Memorial Arena, starting at 5:45 p.m.
Both the championship and consolation final games in the Midget Division will be in Vernon. The gold-medal game is 7:15 p.m. at Kal Tire Place, while just a block away, attached to the north end, the consolation final will be played at Kal Tire Place North at 7 p.m.
Vernon Nedco Turbo is off to a 2-0 start in the consolation side of the Midget playoffs.
Vernon beat North Okanagan 5-3, thanks to clutch goaltending from the duo of Jared Ross and Jakob Aeichele and two-goal performances from Zach Manthorne and Jaycen Lambert.
The fifth goal was a beauty by D-man Brenden James, who lugged it up the ice, charged hard to the net, faked a pass and buried into the open half of the net.
Turbo took care of city rivals Vernon Corbett Office Plus Rangers 10-2. More terrific goaltending from both goalies – including a shutout from Aeichele – and the goals came in bunches.
Turbo was led by captains Zack Laranjo (4+3) and Tanner Wright (2+3). Lambert had another multi-goal game (2) and singles came from Manthorne and Kristian Hovdebo.
Twins Isaac and Sam White along with Youngbin Kim set the tone all game long for the Turbo with their hard work and smart play.
The Rangers offence came from D-men Owen Siskosky and Elias Wery.
BANTAM FEMALE
Huge dedication, traveling to and from Kelowna for practices, has paid off for Vernon female hockey players Tyra Cunningham, Brooklynn Walters and Kenzie Miller.
The trio, unable to play bantam female hockey in Vernon because of a lack of numbers, tried and out made the Kelowna Rockets squad, which won the Okanagan championship banner and now advance to the B.C. championships in Port Coquitlam March 20-25.
Cunningham, a goalie, and defenceman Walters have been with the team since the start of the season, and Miller, a forward, joined the club five weeks ago. They would travel to Kelowna Tuesday morning for practices from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m., and Wednesday evenings from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.
The trio helped Kelowna amass a season record of 22-5-4, then celebrated the Okanagan championship with a 5-2 win over Salmon Arm Silvertips in the final.
For more minor hockey scores, visit www.vernonmorningstar.com.
BANTAM TIER 1
The North Zone Kings will face the Thompson Blazers in the Okanagan Tier 1 best-of-three championships series starting Friday in Kamloops.
The Kings swept the Central Zone Rockets in the league semifinals, with Mandi Feist picking up the win in net in both games.
The series started in Kelowna with the Kings picking up a 4-2 road win. After falling behind 1-0, Jace Weir tied the game with a Bobby Orr-like rush through the entire Rockets team, followed by a laser shot over Kelowna goalie Wilson Maxfield.
Devin Jameson, assisted by Cosmo Wilson and Deagan McMillan, gave the Kings the lead with 6:37 left in the second.
Then it was up to Feist’s brother, Layton, to secure the win for his sister as he scored just over a minute later, assisted by Weir and Austin Roest, to make the score 3-1.
The Rockets cut the lead to 3-2 with 7:02 left in the third, but Mandi was not to be denied the win as Layton potted his second of the night less than 30 seconds later (assisted by Caleb DeHoog) to restore the two-goal lead.
While the game was close, it was a sparkling performance by the Rockets’ Maxfield that kept it so. He simply stood on his head at times as the Kings outshot the Rockets 47-23.
In Game 2, in the friendly confines of Armstrong’s Nor-Val Sports Centre with a large crowd of supporters, the Kings proved to be too much for the Rockets with a decisive 6-1 win.
It took a while to get started, but Roest (assists by Matthew Johnston, McMillan) opened the floodgates at 17:01 of the first period. The rout was on as McMillan (assists by Johnston, Ezra Chan),Adam Bourgeois (assists by Cody Black, Andrew Teare, Roest(assisted by Layton Fiest), Grayson Williamson (assists by Teare, Jameson) and Weir (assists by Johnston, Layton Feist) rounded out the scoring.
BANTAM TIER 2
The Sun Valley Source For Sports Vernon Vipers ended the regular season on a winning note with a 7-2 road victory over Penticton.
After falling behind 1-0 early in the first, it was Nick Noren scoring to tie it from Bennett Kuhnlein and Colton Fleming. The teams remained deadlocked until midway through the second when Fleming put the Vipers ahead to stay with a powerplay point shot, with assists from Kuhnlein and Noren.
It was then Max Stewart first setting up Noren for his second and then scoring himself on a nifty move from a great feed delivered by Cash Anderson to end the second period. Penticton replied with a goal midway through the third before the Vipers responded with Erik Pastro’s unassisted marker minutes later.
Riley Cormier then took a feed from Kuhnlein and delivered a brilliant cross-ice pass as Noren one-timed a high slot shot to complete the powerplay hat-trick. Matthew Kuhnlein was stellar between the pipes all afternoon making several key saves allowing his team to complete the come from behind win.
The Bantam Vipers begin their playoffs this Friday morning at Kelowna Memorial Arena vs Penticton.
PEE WEE TIER 3
The Collard Financial Vipers are entering the playoffs this weekend in Salmon Arm on a roll with four straight wins.
The Vipers finished the regular season with a 10-2 romp of the Sicamous Eagles, good for third place in a very tight Tier 3 division, with 11 wins and 7 losses.
Kohen Molde picked up the win in net for the Snakes with 26 saves. Oliver Murray lead the Vipers with two goals, defenceman Hannah Robertson with had 1+2. Cole Gartner, Sam Levesque, Mark Johnson and Dylan Salling all chiped 1+1. Single goals came from Kai Maleniza, Tage Nanji and Kohen Pounder. Helpers went to Jace Collard, Maddy Fick and two for Lyndon Carleton.
ATOM DEVELOPMENT C
Vernon Valley Wood Remanufacturing Vipers overcame a four-goal outburst from opponent Isaac Gossen and beat the Sicamous Eagles 7-5 at Kal Tire Place North.
Hudson Podollan scored twice for Vernon, Ryan Frick added 1+1 and Matthew Vranesic had two assists. Single goals went to Cohen Hogberg, Cameron Matile, Shanahan Gare and Tylen Lewis. Cohen Bailey picked up the win in goal.