The Kelowna Hurricanes clipped the Vernon H&L Glass Wolfpack 3-2 in Sunday’s A final of the North Okanagan Shoot to Thrill Atom Development Hockey Tournament in Enderby.
The Wolfpack grabbed an early lead on a beautiful breakout from Jaxon Collard to Kael Black and finally to Ben King for their first goal. That was followed up just under two minutes later with Lochlan O’Keefe feeding King and Tanner Wright burying the rebound.
The Hurricanes took advantage of some defensive lapses and a sloppy line change by the Wolfpack to rally for the win. Goalie Caden Colmorgen basically stood on his head to give the Wolfpack a chance, earning game MVP.
The H&L Glass crew stopped the Williams Lake TimberWolves 6-4, while the Hurricanes grounded the Vernon Valley Wood Venom 8-0 in the semifinal games.
Colmorgen was stellar in net and the Pack opened a four-goal, first-period lead with MVP King supplying 3+1 and Black scoring once. Clutch assists came from O’Keefe, Lucas Zubrod and Tanner Brown.
Miller scored a shorthanded goal, from King, to send the Wolfpack to their second straight tournament final.
In Saturday action, the Wolfpack lost 5-4 to Williams Lake before shutting down the Clearwater Hawks 9-0.
Williams Lake led 5-0 after 43 minutes, but Vernon clawed back with Zubrod jumpstarting the rally with assists from King and Lee Christensen. Miller followed up with three unassisted goals to close the gap and also take game MVP. Kobe Grant put in a solid effort in goal.
Colmorgen and Grant shared the shutout versus Clearwater, while King led the offence with 2+2. Eric Noren also scored twice, while Zubrod, Brown, Wright and Black rounded out the scoring. Christensen (2), O’Keefe, Braeden McAmmond and Collard added helpers.
H&L opened the eight-team affair by stuffing the host Knights 11-1.
The Venom, after losing a 3-2 thriller to the Hurricnes in their opener, re-grouped on Saturday and earned a 7-2 victory over South Okanagan.
Caden Danbrook, Lincoln Connor and Gavin Fleck each scored a pair of goals with a single going to Ben Imrich.
The Venom then gained a 5-5 afternoon tie with the Abbotsford Hawks. Fleck (2), Danbrook, Brayden Beacom and Cory Lazar handled the offence.
Venom goalies Tyler Sedlacek and Dalton Stenberg played well all weekend.
The Knights fell 8-4 to Abbotsford in consolation side playoff action Sunday.
Mitchell Brown (2), Trevor Kennedy and Eli Dwyer scored for the Knights, with assists going to Alex Gilowski, Brew and Zbytnuik.
On Saturday, the Knights stopped Clearwater 5-2 with Michael Kormany scoring twice and singles going to Dwyer, Kennedy, and Brandon Matvenko. Helpers went to Alex Gilowski (2), Kord Haller, Wesley Graves and Nicholas Walker.
In their second game of the day, the Knights tied Williams Lake 7-7 with Matvenko, Griffin Evans, Brett Harder, Dwyer, Brett Zbytnuik, Brown and Gilowski getting the goals. Brown (2), Bryan Brew, Haller and Kennedy earned assists.