Morning Star Staff
The North Okanagan Knights face the Revelstoke Grizzlies in the Okanagan Mainline Pee Wee Tier 4 Hockey Association final series.
Game 1 in the best-of-three goes Saturday at the Revelstoke Forum with the second game set for Sunday, 12:15 p.m., in Enderby. A third game, if required, will go Sunday, March 1 in Revelstoke. Winner of the series advances to the provincials.
The Knights, who finished fifth at 4-12-2, swept Kamloops (8-9-1) in straight games in their first-round series before doing the same to first-place Kelowna (16-1-1) in the semifinals. Revelstoke was second at 14-2-2.
Easton Hunter counted the early overtime goal as the Knights rallied to shade Kelowna 5-4 Saturday.
Down 4-2 with five minutes to play, North Okanagan coach Randy Zbytnuik called a timeout and Mason Buzzell responded two minutes later. Hunter levelled the score with 10 seconds left.
The Knights turned back Kelowna 4-1 in the series opener at Nor-Val Arena.
The Lumby Stars (4-13-1) smothered Summerland 10-3 and tied the Vernon Tier 2 Nixon Wenger Vipers 7-7 in exhibition games to finish their season.
Sponsored by Greenvelvet Lawn and Tree Care Ltd. and Kineshanko Logging Ltd., the Stars got a hat trick from Rory Campbell against Summerland.
Mason Robinson and Tage Kineshanko each pocketed a pair of goals, while singles came from Conner Seehaver, Quin Williamson and Liam McLeod in front of a stellar Parker Stadnyk.
The Stars registered their comeback of the year Sunday against Vernon.
The Vipers went up 4-0 before Robinson put the Stars on the board after some nice heads-up passing from Noah Clarke and Campbell.
Vernon made it 7-1 early in the third, but the Stars dug deep with Robinson connected at 13:58 on a great pass from Conner Seehaver.
Robinson then completed the hat trick before Kineshanko used his speed on a breakout pass from McLeod for a beauty backhander and shortly after, clicked again on the back hand, assisted by Seehaver.
Lumby pulled within one when Seehaver stripped the puck and scored with 1:49 left.
Kineshanko delivered a gorgerous equalizer with 37 seconds left and goalie Eric Foufoulas on the bench for a sixth attacker. Neither team scored in a five-minute overtime.
The Valley Wood Remanufacturing Vipers split a pair of Atom A Development games, losing 4-3 to Kamloops Ice Hawks Saturday in their final league game.
Both teams held the lead at different points of the game with the Vipers jumped out to a 3-2 lead early in the third before surrendering two goals in the final seven minute.
Jace Weir, Nick Noren and Cash Anderson handled Vernon offence in support of Austin Seibel.
Austin Roest exploded with five snipes as the Vipers edged Salmon Arm 6-5 in exhibition play Sunday in Vernon.
Bennett Kuhnlein had the other goal, while Weir chipped in with two helpers. Colten Colmorgen picked up the win with a couple of key late saves.
The Vipers, coached by Trevor Seibel, are in the Okanagan playoffs Feb. 27-March 1 in West Kelowna.
