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Vernon Junior Vipers defeat Kamloops, West Kelowna

Unbeaton H&L Glass Atom A Development hockey squad has one league game before playoffs
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Jack Black (left), Bryden Ezekiel (right) and the rest of the Vernon H&L Glass Atom A Development Junior Vipers hockey squad continued their undefeated league play Feb. 27 and 28. (Contributed)

Chalk up two more wins for the undefeated Vernon H&L Glass Atom A Development Junior Vipers hockey squad.

The undefeated Snakes dismantled the hometown Kamloops Blazers 9-1 and held off the West Kelowna Warriors 5-3. The team has one more league game against West Kelowna Sunday, March 6, at 12 p.m. at Kal Tire Place. Playoffs will be in Kamloops March 11-13. Jake Black opened the scoring two minutes in off a feed from Harrison Sharman. Liam Locke (from Bryden Ezekiel), Ben Tyssen (unassisted) and Sharman (Reed Witham) also scored in the opening frame.

The second period saw more of the same as Sharman had two goals to finish the natural hat trick (Black and TJ Podollan with assists on one, Ronin Raymond on the final goal of the hat trick). Podollan added a tally of his own from Cole Pinette to end the second with a commanding 7-0 lead.

The Junior Vipers didn’t stop there, as they added two more goals in the third from Witham (unassisted) and from Black (Podollan) before the Blazers finally figured out how to get one past the red hot goal tending of Lucas Gosselin.

Back on the road, the Vipers ventured to West Kelowna and allowed the hometown Warriors to open the scoring just 12 seconds into the contest. Vernon, though, replied with a trifecta of goals from Podollan (assists to Sharman and Black), Black and Witham (Blake Sakakibara).

West Kel tied the contest in the second period, resulting in the final 20 minutes to determine the winner.

Trent Keenan would get the game-winner for the Junior Vipers midway through the final period on play set up by Locke Ezekiel. Podollan added his second from Black for the insurance late in the game.

READ MORE: Vernon Vipers’ David stones Spruce Kings

READ MORE: UPDATE: Trio of Vernon basketball teams advance to B.C. Elite 8 quarterfinals

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