Morning Star Staff
The Thompson-Okanagan Lakers swept the Fraser Valley Phantom in B.C. Midget Female AAA Hockey League play in Vernon.
Jenna Fletcher and Laine Grace, both of Vernon, scored as the Lakers clipped the Phantom 2-1 Sunday morning at Civic Arena.
Stephanie Strymecki of Kelowna and Andie Kaneda of Vernon pocketed assists. Sydney Carter faced 34 shots in net.
The Lakers stormed the Phantom 5-1 in a Saturday matinee at Civic.
Tylee Cooper of Armstrong jumpstarted the offence, with an assist by Grace. Mairyn Tucker of Vernon supplied the second goal, from Makenna Hoffman of Vernon and Cooper.
The third goal came from Ali Roine of Vernon with some help from Anna Morrish from Kamloops and Grace.
Christy Blackburne of Kelowna scored the fourth goal unassisted, while further insurance was provided by Stephanie Strymecki of Kelowna, assisted by Fletcher. Carter, a Kamloops product, earned the win.
Fletcher leads the Lakers with 10 goals and 21 points, followed by Kaneda with 7-12-19. The Thompson-Okanagan is fourth at 8-11-2, while the Phantom are third at 12-8-1.
Laker head coach Mark Davidson, of Kelowna, was elated about getting five of six points against a team that has won three straight league titles.
“We also faced some adversity, as we lost two key defencemen due to injuries on Friday night (1-1 tie). Despite this, the team came together and played well defensively. We are one of the youngest teams in the league and we have had our share of ups and downs so far this season. We are hoping this performance will give us some confidence as we move forward.”
The Lakers have been accepted into the Notre Dame (Wilcox, Sask.) and the Mac’s Christmas tournaments.
“This will give us some needed experience moving up the ladder and into playoffs.”
The Vernon Home Building Center Vipers fell 5-2 to the Kelowna Fripps Warehouse Rockets in a penalty-filled Midget Tier 1 league game Saturday night at Civic Arena.
It was a wild title which saw two goals waved off and the final Kelowna goal awarded without a shot being taken with 44 seconds left and the Vernon goalie on the bench.
Michael LeNoury assisted by Brady Marzocco and Braden Gilowski, and Cameron Hitch from Zach Manton, handled the 1-4-2 Vernon offence. Kelowna is 2-2-2.
The Midgets host the California Wave Saturday (2:30 p.m.) at Kal Tire Place.
The Watkins Motors Mustangs tied the Kamloops Blazers 2-2 in Pee Wee Tier 1 action Sunday afternoon at Kal Tire Place.
The Mustangs spotted the first-place Blazers a 2-0 lead before storming back to level the score after the ice clean. Speedy winger Trevor Kennedy cut the Kamloops lead in half by banging home a Cole Boyarski shot and Nick Teale knotted things with a nice top-shelf snipe.
Vernon (1-4-1) pressed hard in the third period and were denied by the red-hot Blazer goalie. Kamloops is 4-1-1.
The Source for Sports Tier 1 Bantam Vipers fell 5-2 to the Prince George Cougars Saturday morning at Civic and then tied Okanagan Hockey Academy Canucks 2-2 Sunday in Penticton.
Caden Bracken set up Dawson Chase for a beauty, while Joe Eggert rushed up the ice and made a nifty drop pass to Nick Cherkowski for the second Viper snipe. Tyler Sedlacek was in net.
Despite being shorthanded for half of the opening period in Penticton, the Vipers went ahead at 12:10 mark when Mika Burns flipped a puck to the corner for Eggert whose backhand pass found Chase in front.
It was 2-1 Canucks with three minutes left to play when Eggert fired a puck high, blocker side to knot the game. Tyson Sampert and Dylan Sedlacek picked up the assists and Brendan Forman turned aside 29 shots.
The Fix Auto Bantam Tier 2 Vipers stopped the host Abbotsford Hawks 7-4 Sunday morning to finish sixth in the Abby Invitational.
Gavin Fleck and Dayton Bryan each bagged a pair of goals for the Vipers, who got singles from Cole Jonson, Lincoln Connor and Griffin Evans. Lucas Halvorson earned three helpers, while Zach Agar had two.
Vernon lost 5-1 to the Langley Eagles Saturday night with Halvorson connecting from Tanner Wright and Fleck.
The Vipers fell 5-4 to Abbotsford in round-robin play Saturday afternoon. Bryan, with three goals, and call-up Braydie Allan-Webber handled the Vernon offence. Fleck pocketed two assists.
The H&L Glass Vipers shared the bronze medal with Chilliwack in the Kamloops Atom Development November Classic, falling 3-1 to Kelowna in Sunday’s semifinal.
Vernon turned in a spirited defensive effort led by goaltender Matthew Kuhnlein but couldn’t bury enough chances. Colby Restiaux scored on a nice feed from J.J. Milne.
The H&L Glass crew bowed 8-2 to Penticton in preliminary play Saturday night with Deagan McMillan converrting a pass from Zac Milne in the first period and J.J. Milne scoring in the third, from Trey Schober.
Vernon parlayed a McMillan hat trick into a 10-7 win over Chilliwack early Saturday morning. The Milne brothers each counted a deuce, while Nolan Thomas, Rylan Petty and Gunnar Nyberg added singles in support of Aidan Lawrence.
The Vipers opened with a 4-1 loss to Kelowna with J.J. Milne scoring, unassisted, in the third period.
