Morning Star Staff
Vernon Home Building Centre Vipers wrapped up an undefeated exhibition season with a pair of victories last weekend.
The Tier 1 Midget squad clipped the Kelowna Fripps Warehouse Rockets 2-1 at Memorial Arena Friday night. Cody Hendrickson went top shelf to give the Vipers an early lead only to see the Rockets tie it up on a powerplay.
Defenceman Ryley Booth went end to end for the deciding goal on a shot that handcuffed the Kelowna netminder.
The Vipers stormed the Westside Tier 2 Warriors 9-1 Saturday night at Civic Arena Saturday. Logan Geefs led the offensive explosion with four goals while Justin Mitchell added a pair.
Jim Armstrong is once again coaching this year’s squad that begins the regular season Sunday at Civic with a 5 p.m. game against Kamloops. POE, OHA, Prince George and Kelowna make up the rest of the teams in the league.
Bantam Tier 3 Machine crew mauls Merritt
The Vernon Machine Vipers enjoyed a three-game Bantam Tier 3 exhibition weekend.
Every skater registered at least one point in a 10-2 win over host Merritt on Friday night.
Bryton Stead supplied 2+3, while Austin Dixon had 2+1 and Richard Thompson, Colton Skead and Josh DeCoffe each provided 1+2. Jarett Campbell, Brian Ferguson and Kaden Black also scored.
Goaltending duties for the weekend were shared among Josh Evans, Nathan Spark, Billy Cawthorne and Dustin Beckner.
The Vipers bowed 12-0 to Salmon Arm Tier 2 Silvertips Saturday at the Sunwave Centre before closing the weekend with a 4-2 loss to Okanagan Hockey School Tier 2 Canucks in Vernon.
Vernon’s first goal was scored by DeCoffe on a tip in from a nice point shot by Michael LeNoury, also assisted by Ferguson. Austin Derkach scored the second goal with hard work and splitting the defence after a nice passing play from Campbell and Alex Richardson.
Pee Wee Lakers red-hot
The Vernon Pee Wee Female Lakers went undefeated with a 1-1 tie Saturday against Kamloops Mystix and a 6-0 victory over visiting Kamloops on Sunday, closing off with a 3-0 victory over the Vernon Female Bantams.
The Lakers started a little slowly in Kamloops with Cassidy Marshall scoring for the Lakers.
On Sunday, the girls dominated Kamloops, getting their opening goal in the second period with Carly Southam converting a feed by Andie Kaneda.
Emily Clarke made it 2-0, unassisted, and Kendra Ostafie netted the third goal assisted by Kaneda and Southam.
Kaneda was on fire with two more goals in the third, assisted by Ostafie. Mairyn Tucker closed out the scoring, from Clarke.
It was a feisty game with 12 minutes worth of penalties to Vernon and 22 to Kamloops.
The Lakers finished off the day with a fun game versus the Vernon Bantams.
The Lakers dominated the shots in the first period as they peppered goalie Bailey Berndt, who was stellar.
It was 2-0 after two periods with Clarke and Kaneda scoring assisted by Tiera Joseph, Southam and newcomer Tylee Cooper.
The Lakers got impressive defensive teamwork by Ailish Curran and Courtney Graves and Curran put one in off passes by Graves and Kaneda.
Samantha Head earned both shutouts for the Lakers, coached by Arnie Head.
The Lakers are off to Williams Lake for their first tournament of the season this weekend.
Tier 3 Bulldogs explode in exhibition games
The Vernon Tier 3 Pee Wee Bulldogs shaded Kamloops 4-3 and stuffed Salmon Arm 9-0.
Josh Bridge, Nick Cherkowski, Jenna Fletcher and Dawson Boyce handled the Dawgs’ offence in Kamloops. Bridge pulled the hat trick and Coleton Bilodeau had a pair at Sunwave Centre.
In Senior Atom Development exhibition play, the H&L Glass Wolfpack stopped the North Okanagan Knights 6-4 at Nor-Val Sports Centre before losing 7-5 to Penticton Game-Time Sports at Wesbild Centre.
Veterans Tanner Wright and Ben King each scored twice against the Knights, singles going to Tanner Brown and Rowan Miller.
Miller fired two goals versus Penticton with Kobe Grant, Tysen Fairweather and Eric Noren producing singles.
Venom draw twice with Kamloops Senior Atoms
The Valleywood Venom tied Kamloops 7-7 and 5-5 in other Senior Atom action.
Vernon’s scoring Saturday at Civic Arena came from Caden Danbrook (2), Brayden Beacom, Cory Lazar, Landen Harrison, Gavin Fleck and Anne Cherkowski.
Goaltending duties were shared between Dalton Stenberg and Tyler Sedlacek.
The rematch Sunday in Kamloops saw the hosts use a late goal for the draw.
Kamloops jumped out to a early 3-0 lead before the Venom battled back. Cameron Moger potted a hat trick with Caden Danbrook supplying a pair. Both Moger and Danbrook played Senior Atom last year as underagers.
