It might be a little early to call this weekend’s games “big games” but when you look at the standings, a case could be made. If things go right today and tomorrow, Comox could find themselves moving up in ranks. They currently sit in 5th place in the North Division, just one point behind Campbell River who they play tonight. A win this evening will put them in a tie for 3rd place as they would jump over the Storm and be tied with the Port Alberni Bombers who are idle. That’s because the Bombers lost two nights ago in Westshore. The problem for the Glacier Kings is that they have already lost to Campbell River twice this season and that they play the top team in the South Division tomorrow night (Westshore).
Head to head this season against the Storm, the Yeti lost 3-2 in overtime on September 13th and then dropped a 4-2 decision last Friday. The good news is the GKings are on a bit of a roll right now having won 2 in a row and 3 of their last 4. I asked head coach/GM Curtis Toneff if he thinks his club has turned the corner, “We hope so. To be completely honest with you, we asked for a completely boring 60 minutes last Sunday and we ended up scoring 4 goals against the best team in the league so they say. It’s a good sign for the league as well I think with the parity in it. Back to us I thought we played simple for the most part, played pretty steady in our end, had good sticks, had good box outs and it helped us.”
This squad is playing so much better right now than they did at the start of the season. Remember they lost their first 4 games of the year (one in OT). I asked Toneff about what has changed since the beginning of the campaign. He says it’s been the addition of key personnel, “To be honest I don’t think there is one. We came together late. After out first regular season game, it was still kind of like an exhibition game. We picked up 7 guys after that game, 5 of which I kind of knew were coming back at some point. We’ve picked up a couple more since. I think it’s just us just starting to gel, starting to understand how we want to play, how we think we have to play to win. It may not always be the flashiest game. By some of our verbiage on the bench, I can hear what the players are saying. There’s some contagiousness there. They understand how we have to play to have success.”
Campbell River has always been a thorn in the Glacier Kings side and it has been a great rivalry for many years. It should only intensify as this is the third meeting already in just 20 days. They also played them 3 times in 5 days during exhibition. Curtis talked about why Comox has had trouble with getting points against the Storm so far, “I couldn’t tell you. They’ve all been kinda close games. I’ve thought that we have played fine against them, we just haven’t got the results against them. At some point, we’ll have to take a few points. Since I’ve been here (Luc) Gravel has had our team’s number. He’s from Comox and he gets up for theses games so we need to find a way to get in his kitchen a little bit more.” Gravel has been really good this season and has the stats to show it. He has accumulated a 3-1 record with an impressive 2.35 GAA and a .922 save percentage. The 19 year old has also come into 2 other games in relief of Matteo Scotto Di Pompeo.
The Glacier Kings head into tonight’s contest having outscored their opponents 16-11 in their last 4 contests and sport a 3-4-1 record while Campbell River has only given up 3 goals total in their last 2 matches and carry a 4-4-0 record. Game time tonight is 7:30 at the Rod Brind’Amour Arena. I’ll have Comox Valley’s official roster posted up on the “Gameday Lineups” page of my blog later today. Enjoy the game everybody!
Darryl Skender
