Vernon DCT Chambers Trucking Marauders scored six times in the first period and rolled to a 13-1 win over the Nakusp Falcons to open the 10-team Vernon Ice Breaker Bantam House Hockey tournament Friday night at Civic Arena.
Finn O’Keefe led the Marauders, who erupted for their highest goal output of the year, with four goals, while Cole Martin and Landon Currie each had hat tricks.
Singles went to captain Zach Agar, alternate captain Aaron Botterill and Tayvn Best, while defenceman Mac Gilchrist was chosen game MVP.
Sam Knox was solid in going the distance for the win, stopping two first-period breakaways. He lost his shutout bid with seven minutes remaining.
The Marauders completed round-robin action Saturday with games against the Castlegar Vikings and Penticton Lions Club Veelociraptors.
In other opening-day action, the West Kelowna Warriors upset the Vernon Corbett Office Plus Sharks 4-3 at Civic behind two goals from Rohan Ikebuchi.
Mitch Glutek and Robert Skeys also scored for the Warriors, who are near the bottom in their home rec league. Brennan Schwark scored twice and hit two crossbars on breakaways to spark the Sharks, who lead the North Okanagan Super League. Branden Lehoux had a single.
The Five Star Awards Cougars opened the Ice Breaker with a 4-3 loss to the Castlegar Vikings at Civic.
Trevor Saprikin counted a hat trick for Castlegar, including the winner with 11:45 to play in regulation.
Answering for the Cougars were Miles Wohlford, Maguire Dickinson and Nicholas Mann.
The Interior Savings Giants parlayed a two-goal first-period lead into a 5-1 Ice Breaker win over the Kelowna Bruins at Priest Valley Arena.
Brendan Horsfield pocketed a deuce for the Giants, with Tyler Semeniuk, Kaiden Parton and Jaden Steinke completing the Vernon offence.
In the other Ice Breaker tilt at PV, the Kamloops Petes and Penticton Lions drew 4-4.
Jacob Harding paced the Petes with a duece, while Kiver Heintz replied with a pair for the Lions.
The North Okanagan Knights opened their Pee Wee Tier 4 tourney in fine style, stomping the Chase Broncos 13-2 Friday.
Chase got on the scoreboard first halfway through the opening frame, but Dylan Huber tied it up, assisted by Eli Dwyer. Kevin Thomas Walters, assisted by Huber and Dwyer, made it 2-1 for the hosts before the break.
Chase equalized in the second frame, but then the flood gates opened for the Knights. Brandon Matvenko, Easton Hunter, Wesley Graves, Griffin Evans and Bryan Brew all found the back of the net, assists from Walters (3), Ryan Desilets, Michael Kormany, Kord Haller and Graves (2).
Further North Okanagan offence flowed in the final period from Kormany, Graves, Alex Gilowski, Walters and Desilets.
Assists went to Matvenko, Evans, Hunter and Graves.
Netminder Thomas Burton earned the win.
Caedon Bellmann racked up a shutout as North Okanagan then blanked the Kelowna Rockets 3-0.
Huber scored once in each period for the hat trick.
In other Pee Wee tourney play, the Vancouver Thunderbirds doubled the Castlegar Rebels 8-4, and the Langley Eagles bombarded the Grand Forks Bruins 18-0.
Meanwhile, the Vernon Home Building Centre Vipers were gently schooled 8-1 by the Okanagan Major Midget Rockets Friday at the 35th Kelowna Daily Courier Elite Midget Hockey Tournament.
The Vipers, who were last-minute stand-ins for a Burlington, Ont. team, scored in the second period when Jeff Bochon slipped home a pass from Jordan Rea.
Earlier Friday, the Vipers started strong in a 5-2 loss to the Compete Rams Academy of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho.
The two teams played through a scoreless first period before Cole Woodliffe opened the Vipers’ scoring with a pretty powerplay goal. A few minutes later, Scott Latwat scored the second goal.
The building crew ran into penalty trouble in the third period, and Compete scored their fifth goal into an empty net.
