The Vernon Sun Valley Source For Sports Vipers were 1-1 heading into Saturday afternoon play in their home Bantam Tier 2 Hockey Invitational at Civic Arena.
The Vipers, coached by Keith Chase and Eddie Johnstone, needed a win over the Abbotsford Hawks late Saturday to reach today’s semifinals of the eight-team tournament. The championship final goes at 1:45 p.m. with the semis at 7 and 9:15 a.m.
Vernon opened by stopping the Nanaimo Clippers 7-2 Friday night.
Damian Coljee-Fehr pulled the hat trick for the Sun Valley boys, netting the final two goals, three minutes apart, in the third period. He provided the goal of the night on a bang-bang play with linemate Nick Cherkowski and d-man/captain Dylan Sedlacek.
Caden Bracken, Cherkowski, Dawson Chase and call-up Nick Mitchell collected singles for the Vipers, who enjoyed period leads of 2-0 and 4-0.
D-man Tyson Sampert, who was stellar in his own end with sweet outlet passes and smart angling on the Clipper forwards, won the game MVP gift package for Vernon.
Tyler Sedlacek made a handful of clutch saves for the win.
The Vipers fell 3-2 to the Kamloops Blazers Saturday morning with Dylan Sedlacek and Kael Black recording the Vernon goals.
Brendan Forman was solid in taking the loss. Kamloops led 1-0 at the ice clean.
Benjamin Ward registered 3+2 as the Blazers opened by outlasting Abbotsford 8-6 Friday night at Civic. Kaden Dempsey (2), Tyler Bruins-Slo, Hayden Fidanza and Cody Jones rounded out the Kamloops offence.
Abbotsford got 2+2 from Jake Ennsa, 1+2 from Jordan Rai and other snipes from Aidan Cutting, Kalem Burns and Aidan Hendry.
It was 4-4 after 20 minutes and 6-6 after 40 with Jones providing the winner at 12:41 of the third period, assisted by Brandon Gremaud and Fidanza. Gremaud finished with two helpers.
The Cowichan Valley Capitals ambushed the Quesnel Thunder 7-1 in the late game Friday night with Luc Wilson pocketing 2+2.
Hunter Hieta, with a deuce, Jacob Sean Middlemiss-Degroot, Jamie Roberts and Shane Whitefield completed the Cowichan attack.
Brett Mero replied for Quesnel, who are coached by former Portland Winterhawk defenceman Gary Plamondon.
Abbotsford parlayed 3+3 from Cutting into a 7-4 win over the Clippers early Saturday morning. Rai (2), Kalem Burns and Riley Canning also scored.
Moody, Finner, Ryan Bao and Ryan Stacey answered for the Clippers.
The West Kelowna Grizzlies iced the Williams Laker TimberWolves 5-2 Friday in a penalty-filled affair at Priest Valley Arena.
Mustangs bow to Kamloops
The Vernon Watkin Motors Mustangs bowed 6-3 to the Kamloops Blazers in Pee Wee Tier 1 play Friday night at Priest Valley Arena.
The visitors opened the scoring against the flow of play. Vernon responded when Zack Funk finished a nice passing play from Brayden McAmmond and Tysen Fairweather.
Kamloops (7-2-1) retook the lead, only to watch Steel Quiring break through the middle and make a sweet dish to Cole Boyarski, who deked the goalie for the equalizer. The momentum swung in the Blazers’ favour after Vernon (2-6-1) rang a shot off the crossbar and Kamloops went the other way to pocket the 3-2 goal. The Blazers never looked back, finishing with an empty netter.
Trevor Kennedy had Vernon’s other snipe.
Boyarski, Kennedy and Quiring were the most consistent Viper forwards, while d-men Ben Imrich and Scott Gilowski having strong defensive outings.
