The Westshore Wolves jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead and held on for a 6-4 victory over the Comox Valley Glacier Kings on Friday. It was a valiant effort by the Yeti as they came back after being down early to take a 2 goal lead but Westshore, who have now won 6 in a row, proved why they are the highest scoring team in the league. It was disappointing to give up the lead but the boys played hard and looked gassed by the end. Full marks to the Wolves who are a very good skating team which is just one of the reasons their offence is so good.

Westshore came out of the gates skating hard and earned an early 1-0 lead when Linden Hoskins took a wrist shot from the top of the circle that Timothee Fengos stopped but Owen Hentschel tapped in the rebound from inside the crease. The Wolves then went up 2-0 late in that opening stanza when defenceman Kyle Mayenburg got caught up ice on a bad bounce and Westshore had a 2 on1, Ashton Vine-Sullivan slid a perfect pass over to Jackson Buie who went forehand-backhand on Fengos before putting it up high glove-side.

But, with just over a minute left, Comox would cut the lead in half when Leon Mikhalchuk centered the puck from behind the the net and Zaya Morro got to it in a crowd of sticks and skates and somehow put it past goaltender Ander Reyes. The period would end at 2-1. Shots on goal were 13-11 in favor of the Yeti.

In the second period, the GKings would tie it up on the power play. Cameron Collins fed the puck to the side of the net to Ethan Gobel who slid it in front to Leon Mikhalchuk and he backhanded it past Reyes. Just 2:21 later Comox would take their first lead of the game with another power play goal. Cameron Collins passed to the left side boards to Suhaan Nagra who immediately fed it cross-ice to Ethan Gobel. The 18 year old blasted a one-timer past the goalie and it was 3-2.

The Glacier Kings weren’t done there. Shortly after a successful penalty kill, they would have a 2 on 1 of their own. Kaden Ryan turned the puck over at his own blue line and Ethan Gobel went in and took a shot that Reyes made the save on but Cohen Kallin got the rebound and just got it by the sprawling goaltender. Suddenly it was 4-2 for the road side.

However, you knew you weren’t going to keep Parker Atkinson off the score sheet forever. He gave a perfect tape to tape pass to Noah Gebicki in the slot who one-timed it into a wide open net to make it 4-3.

That’s how the middle frame ended. Shots were 17-6 for the Glacier Kings.

Things got even more tense in the 3rd when Noah Gebicki went over the blue line and both d-men cheated over towards him. That left Kansys Seney all by himself and he made no mistake. That tied the game at 4.

Jasper Fellbaum would put the Wolves ahead for good after a lucky bounce and he found himself wide open in front, then beat Fengos on the blocker side. Alejandro Snead would add an insurance marker after that to make it 6-4. Shots were 11-7 for the home team in final period.

The loss drops the Glacier Kings record to 5-7-2-1 as they remain in 5th place in the North. They will be at home to Saanich on Saturday. Meanwhile the Wolves win improves their line to 13-2-1-0 and are now 4 points ahead of 2nd place Peninsula. Their next action is next Wednesday when they host Campbell River.

Other Observations:

• Westshore had 12 different players with at least a point.
• Comox Valley had 3 players with multiple points.
• During the Wolves 6 game winning streak, they have outscored their opponents 31-16.
• GKings scored 4 consecutive goals from the near the end of the 1st to midway through the 2nd, the Wolves then scored 4 consecutive to finish the game.
• Kansys Seney extended his point streak to 6 games (5G, 4A)
• After going 1 for 27 on the PP in October, Comox Valley scored on their first 2 PP opportunities of the game. For some reason, the online scoring shows they were 2 for 2 but were actually 2 for 4.
• Love the broadcast from Marlon Martens. He’s one of the best in the league. I actually sent him a friend request on Facebook a long time ago but he didn’t accept lol.
• Leon Mikhalchuk now has a goal in 4 consecutive games.
• This is the first time this season that Comox has lost a game when leading after 2 periods (4-1-0-0).
• Attendance was just 93 people at the game. The capacity for the Q Centre is 2780 including standing room.
• Ethan Gobel is the only Glacier King averaging more than a point per game (13 points in 10 games).
• The 6 goals allowed are the most the Yeti have given up this season. Their previous high was 5 which was also against Westshore. They had only allowed 3 goals total in their previous 3 games.
• The GKings continue to lead the VIJHL in Penalty killing. In October, they have only allowed 2 goals on 25 shorthanded situations.

Darryl Skender