The Vernon Home Building Centre Vipers lost 8-2 to the Kelowna Rockets in a penalty-filled Tier 1 Midget hockey game at Civic Arena Friday night.
The league-leading visitors scored a pair of powerplay markers to lead 3-0 after 20 minutes and increased their lead to 4-0 in the second period, when Vipers’ head coach Jim Armstrong was thrown out of the game after pointing out the number of penalties assessed to Vernon without a single one called on Kelowna.
Defenceman Ryan Beach scored his first goal of the year in the third period and then promptly got in his first fight of the year and earned a game misconduct. Nick Pantaleo fought the Kelowna goalie at the same time and both were also tossed from the game.
Defenceman Brad Phillips then scored with a blast from the point to close the gap to 5-2 before the Rockets closed out the scoring.
In a bizarre move, the Rockets pulled their only goalie for an extra attacker with five minutes left in the game and an 8-2 lead.
The game also ended on a sour note when the Kelowna players skated off the ice without shaking the hands of the Vipers at centre ice.
Vernon was assessed 100 minutes in penalties while Kelowna was handed 58 minutes in the penalty box. The Rockets outshot the Vipers 48-28.
