Tag Archives: Curtis Toneff

Kraken-GKings Preview

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It’s Gameday! The Comox Valley Glacier Kings are playing at home for just the second time in 28 days. The Lake Cowichan Kraken will be visiting the Recreation Centre for a North Division tilt. Comox comes into the matchup with a 20-15-5-1 record for 46 points and third place in the North. The Kraken are 12-25-1-1 for 26 points and last place in the division.

Lake Cowichan is coming off a 9-0 drubbing by the Campbell River Storm last Sunday after having an impressive 8-4 win over Port Alberni two days before. They have lost 5 of their last 6 games and could be eliminated from playoff contention with a loss tonight or a Campbell River win. They have allowed 38 goals in their past 6 games (6.33 per game). The team is led in scoring by Iaroslav Morozov with 13G, 16A, 29Pts and Toby Johnson who has 12G, 17A, 29Pts. Morozov is still just 17 years old and has a bright future. In net, Alfie Blakeley has gotten the most starts compiling a 9-12-0-0, 4.02, .890 line. 17 year old Ethan Lorentz saw his first VIJHL action Sunday in a mop up roll playing in the last 7 minutes when Campbell River was already up 7-0. He allowed two goals on four shots in those 7 minutes.

Meanwhile Comox Valley is 8-2-3-0 in their last 13 contests which includes a 3-2 overtime loss in their last game against Victoria on Saturday. Leon Mikhalchuk continues to lead the way with 39 points in 39 games. He leads the squad in goals, assists, points and power play goals. The starting goalkeeper tonight will be interesting as I haven’t received the line up yet. With Lane Maarhuis up with the Vernon Vipers now, will Ander Reyes get his first start for Comox or will it be backup tender Silas Dromarsky? Remember it’s the club’s only game of the week so the decision is quite compelling.

With the Glacier Kings creeping closer to the second place Oceanside Generals, one has to wonder if they are in a battle for third place or is second place still a possibility. I asked head coach/GM Curt Toneff if he thinks second place is still within his team’s grasp, “We just have to focus on our own game. If we take care of our own game we stay where we are. If we exceed our expectations to finish the year perhaps we can get home ice. The home ice part is out of our control so as long as our game is getting better nightly, I think that is the most important thing.” It doesn’t seem too long ago that the Glacier Kings were in 4th and hoping to hang on to that last playoff spot.

Special Teams

Power Play
Comox Valley: 18.7% (6th)
Lake Cowichan: 17.2% (8th)

Penalty Kill
Comox Valley: 80.8% (6th)
Lake Cowichan: 74.3% (10th)

Other GKings Stats:

Score 1st Goal: 14-5-2-0
Allow 1st Goal: 6-10-3-1

Lead After 1st Period: 13-0-0-0
Trail After 1st Period: 2-8-3-1
Tied After 1st Period: 5-7-2-0

Lead After 2nd Period: 13-1-1-0
Trail After 2nd Period: 3-12-3-1
Tied After 2nd Period: 4-2-1-0

You can’t underestimate Lake Cowichan despite where they are in the standings. They are on the verge of getting eliminated from playoff contention and that makes them a dangerous team. Toneff said that his club can’t take them lightly. “They have some high-end players. They’re probably at that part of the year where they’re playing free. They’re probably vying for positions next year and playing loose. That can be hard to play against because the guys don’t have a heck of a lot lose. They’ve has some really great games lately and some poor ones. I think we go back to the last time we played them, they took two points in our home. I think they get up to play us for some reason so we got to be ready to go.” A fast start would be a terrific plan. You can see from the stats above that Comox is a perfect 13-0-0-0 when they lead after the first period.

The Yeti need just one point tonight to clinch a playoff spot in the North Division. If they can garner a single point, it will be mathematically impossible for the Port Alberni Bombers to catch the Yeti. Comox is currently 3 points ahead of 4th place Campbell River and 5 points behind 2nd place Oceanside. The Storm and Generals are both in action this evening as well. Tonight’s puck drop in Courtenay is at 6:30 PM. I will post the Glacier Kings line up to the “Gameday Lineups” page of this blog when I get it.

Darryl Skender

GKings Confident/Goaltender Signed

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The Comox Valley Glacier Kings are in a groove and it is showing in their swagger right now. They are working hard in practice, putting in 60 minute efforts in games and are doing better in the standings. Everything seems to be on the positive with their line up except for one thing (which in another way is a very big positive thing). We have been raving about Lane Maarhuis since coming over from Victoria and for good reason. He has been outstanding. He’s posted a 2-1-1-0 record with a 1.95 GAA and a .939 save percentage since coming here. Well he’s on the move again . He has been picked up by the Vernon Vipers of the BCHL for at least 7-10 days if not longer. Because of this, Comox Valley has acquired 18 year old netminder Ander Reyes from the Westshore Wolves. He became expendable and was released after Westshore signed former Glacier King backstop Luca Vanzo. Reyes sported a 9-3-0-1 record, 2.86 GAA, .911 save percentage with the Wolves and we could possibly seem him start tomorrow with Anthony Ganoung still on the injury list. He is a Winnipeg product that played with Pacific Coast Prep teams the past few years and put up fantastic numbers. Vanzo has also been good since going to Westshore (2-1, .360, .914) and is a welcome addition down south.

Despite the goalie shuffling going on, the Yeti look like they’re feeling good and they should. They have beaten every team in the VIJHL at least once with the exception of the Victoria Cougars. They have given the Cougars a run for their money the past 2 games but only have one point to show for it. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff talked about his players confidence building, “I think it has to. Like you said, playing Victoria that tight, two games that close, there is a belief there that we can beat any team. The nice part is I still feel like we can play a little better. We’ve only been together as a team for so long, we still have some building to do within our game. I think that the roles and pieces are in place to hopefully have some success here.” They have beaten top teams like Peninsula (twice), Westshore (twice) and Oceanside (3 times plus a 4th went into OT).

As the season gets longer, the bumps and bruises and injuries can start to mount. So can being tired from all the practices, games, late night bus trips throughout the first five months etc. Work-load management for the players could be a thing but it still isn’t as hectic as upper-tier junior leagues and professionals. I asked Curtis about his practices this week and he said things are getting done quite quickly, “We’re maybe not going quite as long as you might in November or maybe January. We went for maybe an hour yesterday, Tuesday it was ‘skills’. An hour was more than enough yesterday with the pace and compete, the amount of skating that was done. To be honest, after an hour I said ‘That’s it for today’. We can stay on the ice, have a conversation or two, hit some pucks, have some faceoffs. Today we’ll have a bit more structure and some special teams but it’s been nice. I planned to go an hour-ten or an hour-15 but an hour is all that we have needed. Sometimes it’s like that this time of the year when you get in a rhythm.” By now the players know what to do so it is more-less honing their skills and efficiency at executing their responsibilities.

The Lake Cowichan Kraken will be in Courtenay for a visit tomorrow so there won’t be a practice. It is the Glacier Kings only game this week. Comox has picked up 7 of a possible 8 points against the Kraken so far this year. I’ll have a full preview of that game on tomorrow’s post. Until then, have a great day!

Darryl Skender

Coach Toneff Calls Weekend Successful

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Back a couple months ago, anyone who looked at the schedule for these past couple weeks would probably say that it is a ‘make or break’ stretch for the Comox Valley Glacier Kings. They played Victoria and Oceanside last week and Peninsula and Victoria again this weekend. With the calibre of teams they played, they easily could have gone 0-4. But this Glacier Kings team is so much better now than it was earlier in the year. They went 2-1-1-0 in the 4 games against upper echelon clubs. And if they had a bounce or two go their way, they easily could have been 4-0. Since being crushed by the Panthers a couple times earlier in the season, Comox Valley has really turned things around and could end up being one of the teams to beat at the end of the year.

A week ago Thursday, it was a 1-0 late in the game until Victoria scored an empty net goal to win. Then two days later, Comox took down Oceanside who was in first place at the time. This past weekend was just as impressive with a win in Peninsula and an overtime loss to Victoria. I asked head coach/GM Curt Toneff about the last couple games, “It was a challenging weekend. With Peninsula, the last two times we played them were pretty ugly to be honest, both those games were at home. We went down there and won (their first meeting) on a 3 in 3 (3 games in 3 days). So we went back to that conversation even though we have a lot of new faces. We kinda rallied behind that and said let’s go 2-0 in this building, a pretty simple message. Scoring the first goal really helped. We were down for a good part of the game but getting that tying goal was a big momentum change and helped us rally to get the 2 points.” Comox was actually playing from behind in all 4 of these games that we were discussing from the past two weeks. They definitely showed grit in their comebacks.

In my opinion, if the Glacier Kings would have picked up only 4 points (maybe 3) in the 4 game stretch, I probably would have called it a win. To take down the Peninsula Panthers for a second time this year was a huge confidence builder. Despite the overtime loss to the Cougars on Saturday, Toneff said he thought it was a successful weekend, “Ya I think so. To play two games in a row against what I think are the two best teams in the league and to have the pace, the play and the possession pretty much equal. I think we had the majority of the power plays Friday, I think it was two and two on Saturday. I think that shows that we’re not behind good teams like that. They skate good, in good condition, a little bit bigger and stronger. I’d like to think that we’re equal after the deadline, after we put all of our pieces together.” The Glacier Kings do seem to be up to par with the best teams in the league now. They have proved it by beating every team in the VIJHL except Victoria and they even gave the Cougars a run for their money the past two contests.

After you have two disastrous losses in a row to a team, it could be easy to let that get in your head. Thoughts running through your brain like how good this team is or they creamed us in the past. On Friday the Yeti fell behind 2-0 to the Panthers and the negative thoughts started running through my mind of past games. Curtis said he doesn’t think those negative thoughts were going through his players heads after being down a pair of markers, “Didn’t seem like it. I think that power play goal we scored in the second got the fans into it a little bit. To be honest, I wasn’t sitting on the bench like ‘Hey we’re going to tie this game or we’re going to win this game’, you’re just hoping for a look or a bounce. We got the bounce. I think Mikhalchuk fanned on the shot and it ended up on a tee for Sheldon Alexander and he popped it in. But that’s the way the hockey gods work. You work for your bounces and I thought we worked for our bounce on Saturday.” It’s easy to look at the score when you’re behind, it’s a lot harder to have the mindset on just making a good play. You can’t score two goals on 1 play so you have to just think one play at a time and I think the GKings did that.

It didn’t look promising on Saturday when Comox was down 2-1 late in the third. They threw everything they had at the Cougars but they couldn’t beat Finn Wilson. With only a few minutes left in regulation time, Toneff called a timeout. The Glacier Kings would score just moments later. The bench boss talked about what was said in the timeout, “I think there was three minutes left on the button when I took the timeout. It was an offensive zone face off. I hummed and hawed, I said screw it, let’s do it. What I do, and I hope other teams don’t read this (chuckles), I do ‘power play 1’ and ‘power play 2’ plus one. So it was power play 1 plus (Suhaan) Nagra and then there was power play 2 plus a defenceman if we needed to get there. So if you look at the goal they are all in their power play setups. And then Nagra came off the bench and Sheldon Alexander made a great, great area play with a lot of poise. One of the better plays I’ve seen all year actually. I’m pretty hard on Sheldy but it was a great play, an area pass to Nagra and we got into our power play setup. That’s how we scored.” I can only imagine how fulfilling it must be to pull your goalie and have a plan drawn up and everything work as planned. It took about 5 seconds for the Glacier Kings to score after the goalie was pulled during the live action.

It was definitely a fun weekend to watch hockey. All games were close and went down to the wire. A blown missed penalty on Saturday when the Victoria goalie took his own mask off to get a stoppage and no penalty was issued. I asked the coach if the referees are mandated to blow the whistle if a goalie loses his blocker and he told me no. So if that’s the case, it should have been a penalty in overtime for Delay of Game when he took his mask off to get a stoppage so he could retrieve his blocker. Instead, Victoria wins the faceoff, skates down the ice and scores. That’s the way hockey goes and you move on. The game wouldn’t be as fun if everything always went to script.

Darryl Skender