Morning Star Staff
The Kamloops Lions brushed back the Vernon Home Building Centre Vipers 5-2 Friday night at Memorial Arena to claim the Okanagan Mainline Midget Tier 1 Hockey League semifinal playoff series in three games.
Each team had won a game 1-0 to force the third and deciding contest. Kamloops finished second in the regular season at 7-4-2 and Vernon fourth at 1-12-2.
Kamloops opened up a two-goal lead in the first period, but the Vipers fought back with a powerplay goal by Brady Marzocco, with assists to Michael LeNoury and Bryce Pyle.
Just over a minute later, Connor Johnston scored from Carl Main and Gabe Turner.
Home-ice advantage seemed to go Kamloops way and they scored one in the second and two more in the third period to wrap up the series. Kamloops faces(7-5-3) Kelowna in the league championship.
Meanwhile, the Bannister GM Blazers stopped the Vernon Rebels 6-1 Friday night at Priest Valley to take the North Okanagan Pee Wee Super League regular-season banner.
Both teams finished at 13-3-2 with the Blazers winning the crown with a better record head to head.
Liam Reid scored for the Rebels, who had Jakob Aeichele an Kassidy Schaper-Kotter in net.
