The Vernon H&L Glass Junior Vipers earned their third gold medal of the season at the Atom A Development minor hockey tournament in Kelowna.
The junior Vipers squared off against the hosting Kelowna A2 Rockets in the finals and racked up three first-period goals en route to a 6-2 victory on Jan. 19.
Dominik Silbernagel and Berkeley Reid each had two goals in the gold-medal match, and Colton Sitter and Mathis Paull rounded out the Vipers’ scoring.
The Vipers won despite taking eight minor penalties compared to Kelowna’s three.
The tournament started off on a much different note, with Kelowna’s A1 team dropping the Vipers by a score of 6-3. Sitter had the team’s first goal of the tournament, while Paull had a pair of third-period tallies.
Game 2 was an offensive outburst for the young Vipers, who beat the Kamloops Atom Blazers 9-6. Paull, Hudson Podollan and Jack Saxton had two goals each, while Max Power, Silbernagel and Sitter landed on the score sheet.
Game 3 versus Cochrane saw the Vipers put up another 10 goals including hat tricks from Sitter and Cohen Hogberg, and a pair from Alexander Sharman.
The team had plenty of momentum heading into the semi-final game against West Vancouver, and again the offence came through. Two-goal efforts from Saxton and Podollan lifted the mini-Vipers to the final.
The Vipers previously won gold medals in Jasper and Spokane, and the team will head to the Lower Mainland for their next tournament on Feb. 14.
READ MORE: Vernon Vipers stage comeback, beat Salmon Arm in overtime
READ MORE: Vernon Vipers’ Trey Taylor wins with Team West at CJHL Top Prospects game
