Four Merritt minor hockey teams move on to the second round of the playoffs

The Merritt Tracker Sportswear reps rode the lights-out goaltending of ‘Sam the Man’ Suzuki to a stunning upset of South Okanagan in the first round of this year’s Okanagan-Mainline tier 3 midget playoffs.

After losing game one of their best-of-three series 4-1 in Osoyoos on Friday night, Suzuki simply ‘shut the door’ on a South O squad that had beaten Merritt twice during the regular season by scores of 7-0 and 3-1.

With reinforcements from the house ranks, Merritt rebounded for a 5-2 victory on home ice on Saturday, and then took the third-and-deciding game back in Osoyoos on Sunday by a 4-2 score.

The Tracker Sports-wear midgets finished the regular season in eighth place with a 3-10-3 record, while South Okanagan went 13-2-1 to finish just a point out of first.

Merritt’s midgets now move on to play fourth-place Vernon in the second round. Games begin this weekend, with the first one in Vernon at 5:45 p.m. on Friday.

Game two of the best-of-three series will be played in Merritt on Saturday at 1 p.m. If a game three is needed, it will be back in Vernon on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Merritt and Vernon split their two regular season games.

In other first-round playoff action this past weekend, the Ramada peewee reps made short work of their opposition, defeating West Kelowna 18-1 and 19-4 to take the series 2-0.

The undefeated Ramada Jr. Cents have a bye in the second round.

Also winning convincingly on the weekend were the City Furniture bantams. They polished off 100 Mile House by scores of 17-2 and 12-2. They also have earned a second-round bye.

The fourth Merritt team to earn in a spot in the second round was the Interior Savings peewee rec squad. They disposed of a crew from the Thompson-Cariboo 5-1 and 9-1.

The Merritt team moves on to play 100 Mile House, with game one slated for the Cariboo-Chilcotin community on Sunday at 9:45 a.m. Games two and three (if necessary) will be the following weekend.

Two local teams were knocked out of the playoffs on the weekend.

The LNB atoms fell two straight to Logan Lake. The scores were 11-0 and 8-4.

In an extremely hard-fought series that went to a deciding third game, the Joco Transport female midgets were edged two games to one by Lillooet. 

The Tolko bantam female team begins its first-round of the playoffs this weekend with game one against Kamloops on Saturday in the Tournament Capital City. Games two and three (if needed) are scheduled for the following weekend.

Also kicking off their playoffs are the NVIT midgets, who host Thompson-Cariboo on Sunday in Merritt for game one of their best-of-three series.

In non-playoff hockey action this past weekend, the Fountain Tire atoms narrowly went down to defeat in both of their games, losing to Kelowna 5-4 on Saturday and 4-2 in Vernon Sunday.

Minor Hockey Play-offs – This Weekend

Saturday, Feb. 6

   1:00 –   3:15 Midget Rep vs Vernon NV

Sunday, Feb. 7

12:00 –   1:45 Midget Rec vs T-Cariboo NV

NV – Nicola Valley Memorial Arena