It’s Game Day today as the Comox Valley Glacier Kings will be put to the test when they travel to Westshore for a game against the first place Wolves. Both teams are playing well right now. The Wolves have won 5 in a row, outscoring their opponents 25-12. The Glacier Kings are winners of their last 2 contests and have points in three consecutive games (2-0-0-1). The two teams squared off back on October 4th in Courtenay where Westshore took the game 5-1.

One interesting part of tonight’s game should be special teams. Starting with the power play, Comox has the second lowest proficiency rate, capitalizing on just 14.3% of their opportunities. On the other hand, the Wolves have the 2nd best at 24.4% so obviously staying out of the penalty box will be key. I spoke with head coach/GM Curtis Toneff and he talked about his club’s power play woes, “It’s been a frustrating part of our game. We started out okay (at the start of the season). I think our first reps look really good and then we get away from it. We have had a fair amount of conversations, we practice it often, I have made some personnel changes here and there. It’s also maybe a culmination of things like puck luck and switching around their spots like we have which might help them. I think just too much stagnant stickhandling is the one thing that frustrates me the most as a coach. When we move the puck and have a little more movement as a unit, we create good looks. Sometimes those looks go in and sometimes they don’t. That’s something that we’re going to continue to chip away at.” The Glacier Kings have just one power play goal in October. Their goal with the man advantage in their last game in Oceanside means they have are 1 for 27 this month.

The penalty kill on the other hand has been terrific. The Yeti have the best PK in the VIJHL with a 87.0% success rate. Westshore is pretty good as well at 83.6% which is 4th best. Toneff talked about why his own team has been so successful, “I think it’s honestly the veteran presence we have on it like guys that are used to knowing how we do kill. It’s the little reads in the game, when to be aggressive and when to not. Our penalty kill is fairly passive to be honest with you but it kind of emulates our d-zone. There’s not a lot of thinking. It’s just our d-zone minus one guy. It seems to be working and you never have great penalty killing without great goaltending. Maybe we’re not giving up grade ‘A’ looks but the goalies are still stopping the puck when they need to and that’s important as well.” Comox has the second best defensive rating in the league allowing just 2.79 goals per game. Meanwhile the Wolves have scored more goals than any team in the VIJHL will be an issue for the offensively challenged Glacier Kings.

Another strong start will be key for the GKings tonight. They don’t have the offensive power to come back from a significant deficit. That will be tough against the high-octane offense featuring 2 out of the top 4 players in league scoring. Parker Atkinson is putting up superior numbers averaging over 2 points per game so far while Kansys Seney is at close to 1.7 ppg. To put it in prospective, Comox doesn’t have anyone in the top 20 in scoring and also doesn’t boast any player that averages a point per game that has played a minimum of 10 games (the Wolves have 4). Westshore also has eight players with at least 10 points already, the Glacier Kings have two. Obviously this game will be a major test. The Yeti’s bench boss talked about the challenges they’re facing, “Just playing against a team with three or four lines that can bite you. A lot of teams have one or two but these guys don’t have many weak links. It’s up to every shift, be ready to go and protecting the guts of the ice. We gotta play that simple, greasy little game.” I agree the simpler that they can make the game the better and it wouldn’t hurt to have another great goaltending performance like they got from Silas Dromarsky who has been announced as “Goaltender of the Week” in the VIJHL for last week.

Westshore comes into tonight’s match with a 12-2-1-0 record, good for first place overall in the VIJHL. Comox Valley is in fifth place in the North Division sporting a 5-6-2-1 line. Head coach/GM Mike Nesbitt has assembled a very competitive team this season as one would expect. Remember that he took over a Glacier Kings squad that was majorly struggling and turned them around and had some very good seasons. Ander Reyes gets the start in between the pipes for the Wolves while Timothee Fengos will backstop the GKings. Game time is 7:00 pm at the Q Centre.

Darryl Skender