Last Sunday, the Rona tier three midget Silvertips took on the tier two Vernon Vipers at Kal Tire Place in Vernon.
The Vipers took full advantage of an unprepared Silvertips and would rack up an early 4-0 lead.
The Tips regained their composure and would battle back into the game in the second frame.
Assistant Captain Colby Sherlock, fresh off of a call up to the Sicamous Eagles, fed Dallas Stewart a great pass into the slot and Stewart made no mistakes burying it.
Sherlock would go on to score a beauty on a breakaway, and then as if to not be outshined, Captain Kailen Kerr fought off two defenders to capitalize on a breakaway of his own after receiving a great pass from Stewart and AP player Travis Bruce.
Despite 40 minutes of great hockey, the Vipers did skate away with a 5-3 victory.
On the positive side, the ’Tips all know now that they can compete with the higher league team and are still looking good on the road to Whitehorse.
They head to Osoyoos this weekend for tournament action and will face Kelowna for league action before the Christmas break.
Tough tourney
The North Island Impact won the Salmon Arm midget A female hockey tournament hosted this weekend in Sicamous.
The Impact defeated Abbottsford 3-1 in the final game.
North Island defeated their arch rivals South Island 4-0 in the semi final while Abbotsford dispatched Terrace 2-1 in the other.
The Silvertips, sponsored by Armstrong Co-op, finished the tournament 0-4. On Friday the ’Tips lost a close game with South Island 2-0. Bailey Berndt was super in the Salmon Arm net keeping the game close.
The ’Tips lost 2-0 to Terrace in a game they played well enough to win and then lost their third game 2-1 to arch rivals Kelowna.
In the Silvertips third game, they outplayed and outshot the Rockets, but found no puck luck. Cailee Bauml scored the ’Tips lone goal when she poked checked a defenceman on the blue line and then simply out skated the other defenceman to get in the clear.
She made no mistake going high to the blocker side to score.
Salmon Arm lost their consolation final to Williams Lake 4-0.
The Silvertips game MVPs for the tournament were Brooke Miller, Cailee Bauml, Catlyn Marshall and Makenna Southam.
“The tournament was really competitive. Almost all of the games in the tourney were tied or decided by less than two goals,” said assistant coach Korri Vandale.
“We competed with the best teams in the province and could have won any of our round robin games. We just couldn’t find the back of the net. It’s hard to win when you can’t score.”
The Silvertips next action is a double header against Williams Lake this weekend in Sicamous.