Well, this is disappointing. The Comox Valley Glacier Kings have played well lately, they’ve been picking up wins, they got themselves to .500 for the first time and in one game, it all came crashing down. The Peninsula Panthers came into Courtenay and embarrassed the Yeti 11-1. I will admit I never watched the entire game, I watched the Blue Jays Game 7. Usually if I miss the game, I watch the replay when I get home but I feel like rewatching this game might not be productive. I did breeze through some of it but it was hard to watch. There is no point in me pointing out everything that went wrong and try to analyze every little detail. They lost 11-1. That says more than anything I ever could. What I will tell you is the the Panthers scored 6 times in an 8:57 span in the first period. Allowing 11 goals in a game at home is tough, even tougher knowing that their go-to netminder Anthony Ganoung was not even dressed because they still hold three backstops on their roster. It makes you wonder if Ganoung shouldn’t be dressed for all the games and start most of them. It’s a harsh statement but anymore outings like this and it may have to be addressed. And it’s not just on the goalies, hockey is as much a team game as any sport in the world. To be fair, they played the best team in the VIJHL, I get it. Maybe this is just a one-off and come Thursday they will look good again. It’s just disappointing knowing how hard they work on their defensive game and take pride in it. I have a feeling coach Toneff is going to be pretty hard on the boys at practice next week.
On the other side, I would like to give a shout out to Panther forward Ethan Lingard. He was playing for the Panthers back when I was broadcasting and I’ve always liked him. He had 4G, 2A which is great but that’s not what I liked the most. Did you notice his hat trick goal in the second period? He didn’t celebrate, in fact he didn’t even put his hands in the air. A hat trick is something players dream about doing. He just touched gloves with linemates and skated straight to the bench to sit down, not even punching gloves with teammates sitting on the bench while skating by. That’s because he knew that the score was now 8-1. Same thing when he scored his 4th goal to make it 11-1. He didn’t showboat or embarrass his opponent. He plays the game the right way, it’s with respect, and I applaud that.
With my ramblings getting a little old and boring I will finish by saying, next week is a new, fresh week and I would expect the Glacier Kings to be flying on Thursday night in Nanaimo. I didn’t going over the scoring like I usually do, if you’re interested, please got to https://www.vijhl.com/stats/game-center/7099.
The red-hot Comox Valley Glacier Kings were down early but came back and handed the Lake Cowichan Kraken a 6-2 loss on Friday. The win is the 4th in the Glacier Kings last 5 contests and they also have points in 5 of their last 6. It was a good 60 minute effort for the road side who moved up into sole possession of 4th place in the North Division.
The scoring started early but it would be the Kraken who would get on the board first. Iaroslav Morozov stole the puck on a sloppy clearing attempt by the Glacier Kings at their blue line. Morozov skated down the right side, cut towards the net and beat Anthony Ganoung from a bad angle in close.
The game stayed 1-0 until the later stages of the opening period. Logan Walz shot the puck around his own net but a great job by defenceman Landen May to pinch and get to it first. Despite being double-teamed, he managed to get the puck to the the top of the circle to Leon Mikhalchuk who walked right to the faceoff dot and fired a shot past goaltender Evgeni Tkachenko.
Then just 1:11 later Comox would take their first lead of the game. Maxim Lefebvre banked a pass back to the point to Kyle Mayenburg, his shot was stopped by Tkachenko but Zaya Morro was on the doorstep to tap it in. Ethan Gobel got credit for the assist instead of Mayenburg however. And they weren’t done there. With just 16 seconds left in the period, the Glacier Kings would get a 2 on 1 with Cameron Collins sliding it over to Landon Morris who made no mistake to make it 3-1.
That’s how the period would end. Shots were 11-10 for the Kraken.
Just like in the first period, the Kraken would score first in the second stanza. Toby Johnson carried the puck over the blue line and took a shot from the slot that was stopped by Ganoung’s pad but was poked in by Kieran Prichett and it was suddenly 3-2. Unfortunately for Lake Cowichan, that would be the last time that they score. Late in the second frame, Lefebvre gave a beautiful pass in front of the net to Morris to make it 4-2.
The road team made it 5-2 with 1:26 left and it was on another 2 on 1. Cameron Collins fed it to Ethan Gobel who buried it. Somehow Collins never got an assist on the play. The middle frame ended with shots 12-11 for the Kraken.
There was just one goal in the third period. That happened early when Cohen Kallin stole a bad pass inside his own line while shorthanded and had a breakaway the whole way down the ice and beat Tkachenko to make the final 6-2.
Shots were 12 apiece. The Glacier Kings were outshot for the game but had the better chances throughout with multiple odd man rushes.
The win improves the Yeti’s record to 7-7-2-1 and play at home to Peninsula on Saturday. Both of those teams are just 2 points out of first place in their respective divisions. The Kraken drop to 5-10-0-0 as they went winless in October. They host Campbell River on Sunday.
The 6 goals were the most Comox Valley has scored this season.
The loss extended Lake Cowichan’s losing streak to 9 games.
Oddly enough, the Glacier Kings did not have a PP in the game. That breaks their streak of at least 1 PP goal in 3 straight matches.
Talk about scoring in bunches. Comox scored 3 goals in a 2:41 span late in the 1st period, then scored 2 goals in 51 seconds late in the second.
Leon Mikhalchuk has now scored a goal in 5 of his last 6 games.
The Kraken’s PP goal came on a 5 minute penalty during the second period.
Despite not scoring a PP goal, Comox did convert on a short-handed goal and a 4 on 4 marker.
Kieran Prichett’s goal was his first point in 8 games. He put up 4 points (2G, 2A) in his season opener.
The Yeti are now a perfect 6-0-0-0 when leading after the first period.
The second period mandatory timeout never took place until there was 3:19 left on the clock.
Etan Gobel has 2G, 5A in his last 4 games.
The GKings are at .500 for the first time this season.
And finally, don’t forget to turn your clocks back tonight before you go to bed.
Darryl Skender
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Darryl Skender – Former Play by Play Broadcaster of the Comox Valley Glacier Kings
