Another weekend road trip, another tournament title. So it goes for the Vernon ScotiaBank Velocity this season.
Two weeks after winning the Summerland Invitational over the Langley Ice Dawgs, Brent Magnus’ Velocity ruled the Castlegar Bantam House Hockey Tournament last weekend.
Marshall Box fired five goals as the Velocity bounced the Kelowna Black Hawks 7-4 in Sunday’s A final. Jeff Hiscoe and Jeremy Pogue added singles, while Marcus Finn supplied five assists. Isaiah Wenger and Kyle Dennis each earned two helpers.
“What a game,” said Magnus. “It was fast, physical, and a lot of fun to watch. The game was clean with hardly any penalties on either side. Our defensive play had to be better than it has ever been and wow did the boys step up. We fought hard and never gave up and I believe our conditioning, our passing, and our determination proved to be too much for Kelowna.”
Vernon stuffed Castlegar #1 4-1 in the semifinals on three goals from Finn and 1+2 from Box.
Earlier Saturday, the Velocity clipped Castlegar 5-4 with Hiscoe taking a few hits and then going coast to coast for a beauty winning goal. Finn, Wenger, Parker Wadsworth and Pogue also scored.
Vernon opened with a 9-4 grounding of Creston behind four goals and two helpers from Seth Blundell. Wenger supplied 2+5, while Box bagged 1+3 and other goals came from Pogue and Josh McGavrin. Hiscoe provided three assists.
After a good night’s rest, the refreshed Velocity hit the Cominco Arena ice in Trail and rocked Trail-Rossland 9-5.
Hiscoe scored on a bullet from the point, and Brandon Magnus followed up with another rocket that went bar-down after a face off win by Finn and a pass back from Box. Pogue went top shelf for a snipe in the third period.
Box finished with 3+2, while Finn and Wenger each had 1+2 and Parker also scored once.
Jake Holland and Sylvain Lucet shared the tournament net detective duties.
