The Vernon Mighty Ducks are on fire in the Okanagan North Atom Super Hockey League B side playoffs.
The Ducks blindsided the Winfield Bruins 7-1 in their opener with Maisun Ang-Hamilton (4G) jumpstarting the attack at 20 seconds.
Tyler Kruysifix, Jacob Wettlaufer and Cody Beckner rounded out the scoring. Cole Grevatt, Andrew Kositsin and Ephren Potter-Cramer picked up assists.
The Ducks flew to Sicamous on Sunday and downed the Predators 6-3 with Ang-Hamilton sniping a hat trick, Beckner bagging 2+1 and Kostisin getting one.
The Ducks made a pit stop in Enderby on Tuesday night and rocked Salmon Arm 7-1 behind four goals from Ang-Hamilton, 2+1 from Kositsin and one goal from Cole Grevatt. Damian Glover and Shelby Richard were rock-solid in front of Aidan Spraggs.
In a clash of the two top-seeded Vernon teams on the A side, the Lakeside Accuprint Thunder edged Denny’s Ice Rockets 3-2.
Chris Reinhardt buried a rebound of his brother Ben’s big shot and Chad Soon tied the game with a low corner shot for the Rockets. The Thunder got goals from Brandon Dyck, on a wrap-around, Nicolas Petty on a rebound, and Petty on a tap-in, from Owen Palfreyman.
The Thunder rolled behind clutch goalie Brayden McManaman.
The second-ranked North Okanagan Black Knights grounded the Ice Rockets 5-3 in a rough and tumble game Saturday in Enderby.
After the Knights scored on their first two shots, Rocket Zac Funk bulled his way down the left wing and centered to Maddex Minard, who drilled a one-timer into the cage.
Early in the second, Minard stole the puck at the Knights’ line, and returned the favour to Funk, who levelled the score with a low rocket from the slot.
In the third, the aggressive Knights stepped up their game, grabbing the lead again. Funk and Minard, playing inspired hockey, answered back. Funk broke through the defence and snapped one off the crossbar and Minard slammed it home. Despite penalty woes, the Black Knights struck for two late goals.
The Ice Rockets capped the weekend with an 8-3 ambushing of the third-place North Okanagan White Knights Sunday at PV Arena.
Pointmen Liam Remple (1+3) and Levi Vanderdeen set up Ben Reinhardt who scooped in his own rebound.
Sapien Joe then scored off the right wing with some high heat to the glove side. In the dying seconds, Liam Reid went end to end, scoring a buzzer-beater with a howitzer. Remple deked to his forehand, while carrying two Knights on his back. Shaun Huizinga (2+1) wasted no time in burying a centering pass from Joe. Following a Zac Funk snipe, linemate Reilly Teager netted a Minard rebound to make it 7-1. Huizinga knocked in his second to finish things.
