The Comox Valley Glacier Kings hit the road tonight as they will travel to Lake Cowichan in one of three Halloween games on tap in the VIJHL. The Glacier Kings have been playing well lately winning 3 of their last 4 games and have points in 4 of their last 5. Their opponents on the other hand haven’t been having a lot of luck lately. After a promising start where they won 5 of their first 6 games, the Kraken have now lost 8 consecutive matches and have sunk to the basement in the North Division. They’ve been outscored 29-12 in those 8 games which averages out to only scoring 1.5 goals per game during that stretch. Comox currently sits tied for 4th place in the North Division with a 6-7-1-2 record. A win would move them ahead of Port Alberni into sole possession of 4th and also place them at .500 for the first time this season. Lake Cowichan sports a 5-9-0-0 line which is 5 points behind the Glacier Kings and the Bombers.

I’m not really expecting a high scoring game. Both teams play a pretty good defensive game and each also have trouble scoring. As an insight, there are a total of 20 players that have scored at least 7 goals already this season. None are from either of these teams. Another example is the Yeti are the second lowest scoring team in the league ahead of only Kerry Park. Lake Cowichan has the 3rd lowest goals per game. Another stat shows the Glacier Kings leading scorer (Zaya Morro) is tied for 22nd place in the VIJHL. The Kraken’s leading point-getter (Kadin Bilajbegovic) is tied for 43rd. In fact, the only meeting between these two foes so far ended up in a low scoring 3-1 affair in favor of Comox back on October 17th. We might expect the same tonight.

As for special teams, here’s where they stack up:

Power Play
Comox Valley: 16.7% (8th)
Lake Cowichan: 17.3% (7th)
Penalty Kill
Comox Valley: 88.7% (1st)
Lake Cowichan: 76.4% (10th)

There’s no question that the Glacier Kings have been working on their offensive game in practice lately and have scored 8 goals in their last 2 matches so they could be turning a corner. It’s only the second time this season that they’ve scored at least 4 goals in back to back games. The most they’ve scored in a game is 5 and have done that twice (Sept. 20th @ Kerry Park & Sept. 27th @ Nanaimo). The question is, who will be able to step up tonight?

Someone who has been playing well offensively is Ethan Gobel. No, he is not the leading scorer on his club but he is the only player that averages over a point a game. He was held pointless against Saanich in his last contest but racked up 1G, 3A in his previous one against Westshore. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff says he likes a lot of things about Gobel, “Honestly, he’s a hockey nerd through and through. He loves the game, he wants to get better every day and I think he does get better every day and I think it rubs off on his teammates. I think if he wants to, he could work in hockey when he done. He was hurt for a few games and was doing more analytics than I do. He’s kind of a fun guy to have around as coaches. I know Brad Smith is a very big fan. Just kind of a coaches dream, a center with size, plays in every situation. He’s our version of Anze Kopitar. Having guys like him give you a chance to win a lot of nights down the stretch for sure.” So far this season, Gobel has tallied 3G, 11A 14Pts in 11 games.

The Kraken are a dangerous team to play right now. They are definitely overdue for a victory plus 4 of their 5 wins have come at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena. It is a tough place to play as noted by their 4-4 record there. With that being said, it is a very winnable game for the GKings as long as they don’t make too many silly mistakes. Toneff says he know this game is key in the standings and his squad can’t take the Kraken for granted, “They’re all important, it’s going to be tight for awhile. It’s going to be a desperate team that we’re facing. You look at the shot clock when Lake Cowichan plays, they’re usually in charge of the shot clock. Watching them, they’re usually in charge 50% of the game. I know they have a hard hat and lunch box mentality by the looks of it so we have to be ready to go and not think that we’re going to be spotted a three goal lead like a week and a half ago.” After winning their first 4 games at home, the Kraken have lost their last 4 in front of their fans.

The other two games in the VIJHL also have North Division implications with Victoria @ Campbell River and Oceanside @ Peninsula. If all goes well in the 3 games, Comox Valley could see themselves just 2 points out of first place in the North. It looks like Anthony Ganoung will get the start in net. The Glacier Kings line up is now posted in the “Gameday Lineups” section of this blog. Hopefully we’ll be celebrating a Blue Jays World Series Championship by the time the puck drops. Are you ready Marsha? I’ll be texting with you again tonight (it brought us good luck on Wednesday). Go Blue Jays!

Darryl Skender