Tag Archives: Dylan Toth

Storm Down Glacier Kings Again

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The Comox Valley Glacier Kings lost for the fifth time in six games this season as they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Campbell River Storm. This is the second time this season that the Yeti have lost to the Storm. The first time was back on September 13th which ended in a 3-2 overtime score at the Sports Centre. The loss drops Comox Valley’s record to 1-4-1 on the season while Campbell River improves to 3-4-0.

It was a very uninspiring first period for Comox who had very few chances as the play on both sides would be sloppy. There were no goals and the Storm outshot the Yeti 16-7.

The GKings would open the scoring in the second period on the power play. Cameron Collins skated down the left side and gave a drop pass to Maxim Lefebvre who blasted a shot from the top of the circle but goaltender Luc Gravel made a nice pad save. Unfortunately for Gravel, the rebound came right back to Lefebvre who snuck a quick backhand feed to Collins at the side of the net where it would be an easy tap in. Immediately after the mandatory timeout midway through the frame, the Storm won the faceoff in their own zone and would score without the Yeti ever touching the puck. Noah Spencer skated behind the net, came out the other side and took a quick turn-around shot from a bad angle that beat Timothee Fengos short side to knot things at one. Just over 3 minutes later, the Storm would score another goal after a faceoff win. It took about 10 seconds when Ryder Tanner scored from a terrible angle at the side boards and it was 2-1. In the dying seconds of the middle stanza, Comox would turn the puck over in the center ice area and Holden Smith took over carrying it in over the blue line, then skated behind the net and passed back to the top of the right circle where Lucas Beaudoin wristed it past Fengos and it was 3-1 after 2 periods. Shots on goal after at that point were 32-19 for the home side.

As they’ve done for the most part this season, the Glacier Kings played better in the third period but it was the Storm that would score a 4th consecutive goal. On the 4 on 4 situation, Nicholas Condon broke in over the blue line, toe-dragged around Leon Mikhalchuk and beat Fengos blocker side. The GKings would make the score more respectable late when Aryx Siefker hammered Maxim Lefebvre into the boards to give Comox a power play. Kyle Mayenburg took a pass from Declan Johannesen and beat Gravel through the legs. That’s how the game ended. Shots were 17-9 in favor of the road team in that period.

Just as a side note: There was a scrum in front of the Comox Valley net about 5 minutes into the 3rd period after Fengos made a save. I’ve replayed it about 15 times to try and figure out what happened. It looked like Haden Parker crossed checked a Storm player down to the ice which I thought would be the extra penalty. As 8 players started wrestling, it appeared that Landen May sucker punched Campbell River’s Lucas Beaudoin in the face which made me think an extra penalty again. Now all 10 players were in the melee and a fight broke out between May and Noah Spencer. Lots of punches were thrown. May threw his helmet off on the way to the penalty box and Spencer raised his arms up trying to get the fans going. Somehow, the referees decided 2 minutes for everyone except the Storm’s Jack Smith who got an extra 2 minutes and it would be the Glacier Kings with a power play. I’m still scratching my head on that one.

Campbell River now has a day before they go back into action Sunday when they will be at home against Lake Cowichan for an afternoon affair. Comox is right back at it tonight when they host the Nanaimo Buccaneers. The Bucs won the season opener between these two clubs by a score of 4-2. Game time is 6:30pm at the Sports Centre.

Other Observations

  • Comox has now scored a PP goal in 3 consecutive games. They have a total of 6 in those 3 contests.
  • After the Glacier Kings made it 1-0 and maybe a chance to gain some momentum, they took a penalty just 32 seconds later. (I admit it was a very weak interference call by the referee.)
  • Campbell River’s 3rd goal was tough to swallow as they scored with just 1 second left in the 2nd period because of a defensive breakdown.
  • Once again, the Storm won the majority of the faceoffs
  • At one point in the 3rd period, there were 10 players in the penalty box (5 from each side).
  • Cameron Collins now has at least a point in all 3 games that he’s played in (1G, 3A)
  • Storm forward Noah Spencer was an assist shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick. He was just missing the assist. (He wasn’t credited with a fight on the game sheet but it was definitely a scrap with lots of punches.)
  • After recording at least a point in each of his first 4 games, Dylan Toth has been held pointless in 2 straight.
  • The 41 shots the Yeti gave up was the most all season. Their previous high was 37, also against the Storm.
  • Comox continues to struggle in 1st period. They’ve scored just 3 goals in 6 games in the first period.
  • A nice crowd of 711 fans were on hand. That’s Campbell River’s second highest total of the year. They had 818 in their home opener against Oceanside.
  • The Storm are 2-0-0 against Comox and 1-4-0 against the rest of the league.

Darryl Skender

It’s Game Day

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We’ve waited all week for this weekend. And it’s finally here. There’s 10 games this weekend in the VIJHL and the Comox Valley Glacier Kings are in 3 of them. These next few days will be the toughest test for the Yeti that they’ve had all year. Why? Because it has been tough to get a gauge on the team. They were inconsistent early in the season with bad penalties, defensive zone turnovers and not putting a full 60 minutes in. Each game they have gotten better but 4 of the 5 teams they have played are under .500. Their only win is against a club that is still winless this year. They are going to be playing upper caliber teams over the next few days. First up is the Campbell River Storm, a team that beat the Glacier Kings in overtime on September 13th. They have been rivals as long as any of us can remember. Both sides are better than their records. Comox is 1-3-1 while the Storm are 2-4-0. The two teams are very equally matched and promises to be as good of a game as the one 13 days ago. Both teams have had trouble scoring goals early on. The Glacier Kings defence seems to have the edge. As for special teams, Comox has the edge on the power play while Campbell River has been better at killing penalties. Westin Churchill leads the GKings in goals with 3. Zaya Morro leads in points with 4. The Storm are led by Dylan Toth with 4 goals. Nobody else has more than 2. Toth, Elliott Turgeon and Tom Marguet all have 5 points to lead the way for the home side. Dylan Toth just had his 4 game point streak broken in his club’s last game which was a 5-2 loss to Port Alberni. Meanwhile for Comox, Westin Churchill has a goal in 3 consecutive game going into tonight. Campbell River is 1-2-0 at home, the Glacier Kings are an identical 1-2-0 on the road.

We will find out what the GKings are made of this weekend… where do they stand, what are they made of? After tonight they play the top two teams in the VIJHL as they go up against Nanaimo and Peninsula who are both in first place in their respective divisions. It will be a grind for sure. There are a lot of technical things that will have to be done right to come out with victories but there are also simple things as well. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff explains, “Probably just taking it one game at a time. As a whole, you can’t be looking at Saturday’s home game when you’re taking the ice to start the second period in Campbell River. It needs to be period by period, shift by shift, the old coaching cliches but they’re cliches for a reason. That’s why they’re cliches… because they work. You maintain focus and just play hockey and have fun. We did it through camp, we’ve played 2 games in a day, we’ve played 3 games in 3 days, we’ve done 5 games in 4 days so there’s no real excuse for our team. You just go and do what you trained for all summer to do.”

Is there a chance of the players being tired by the time the third game rolls around on Sunday? Absolutely. But considering that this a league of 16-20 year old kids (with a few exceptions) which means their bounce back ability should be pretty high. You take an old guy like me and I’ll be down for a couple days after a game of hockey. These young guys are in great shape and pretty resilient. Toneff says that he will make sure they stay fresh, “That’s my job to make an adjustment or two. Some outsiders or whatever say, ‘What’s up with that schedule’ but to me I love it. You see who rises to the top, you see who is in shape, you see who stays mentally sharp over the course of the weekend. You can find out a lot about your roster. At some point this weekend, there will be some adversity out there, whether you’re hemmed in the d-zone  or you’re on the PK or you’re protecting a lead or you’re scratching and clawing back into a game. At some point in the season, to have success, you’re going to have to do that so may as well start here late September.” It makes a lot of sense, have some stressful games when you have don’t have days off to rest. It can only make you better as the season goes on. So it sounds like Curtis is going to embrace  the 3 in 3 instead of being scared of it. Win, lose or draw, the Glacier Kings will live it and be stronger for it.

The games this weekend are as follows:
Friday: Comox Valley @ Campbell River -7:30pm
Saturday: Nanaimo @ Comox – 6:30pm
Sunday: Comox Valley @ Peninsula – 4:30pm

Darryl Skender

Glacier Kings Earn First Point

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It was another shaky beginning for the Comox Valley Glacier Kings but they battled back and earned a point in their 3-2 OT loss to the Campbell River Storm on Saturday. It was giveaways that killed Comox Valley in the opening frame. It started when Storm forward Armaan Punn stole the puck from Haden Parker and backhanded the puck in front of the net. The puck would glance off Kingston Gowans’ skate and into his own net just 3:12 into the home opener.

Just 1:07 later, another defensive zone turnover would prove costly. Glacier Kings defenceman Maxim Lefebvre got the puck stuck in between his skates in his own slot and Campbell River’s Dylan Toth dug it out and fired it past Timothee Fengos and it was quickly 2-0 just 4:19 into the first period.

Comox wasn’t about to fold the tent however. Westin Churchill would win an offensive zone draw. Joel Schmidt won the puck battle at the side boards and got it back to Thomas Scobie-Gyug who walked into the faceoff dot and beat goaltender Luc Gravel to the far side with a wrist shot. That made it 2-1.

The Storm had a terrific chance to go back up by 2 goals when Elliott Turgeon was sent in on a breakaway but was stoned by Fengos who squeezed his pads just in time.

The second period may not have had any scoring but it was exciting from a fan’s perspective. Both teams had scoring opportunities but Campbell River had more of the Grade ‘A’ chances but Fengos stood tall stopping everything that came his way in that middle stanza.

That set up an exciting 3rd period. The Yeti would tie the game when Westin Churchill received a pass from Landen May at centre ice and raced down the right side, took the defenceman with him and backhanded the puck in front of the net to Zaya Morro. He was slashed by Emmanuel Grenier to cause a delayed penalty. However, the loose puck slid to the side of the net and Churchill poked it home to make it 2-2.

There were so many chances in the 3rd period with Comox getting the better of the opportunities but both goalies were fantastic. And yes, it was fitting that the contest would go to OT. The Storm owned the puck for most of the extra period and won the game when Thomas Curri circled at his own blue line skated all the way down the left wing and beat Fengos from a bad angle.

On the bright side, Comox Valley picked up their first point of the season. They showed a lot of heart after being down early once again. This is the kind of effort that could turn things around. They have shown to be a good 3rd period team, now they need to learn how to get off to a better start. We’ll see if they can come out of the dressing room stronger on Friday for a home date against the Oceanside Generals. Have a great day everyone.

Other Observations

  • Unfortunately the audio didn’t work on FloHockey so I had to do play by play in my head.
  • This is the GKings 3rd straight home opener against Campbell River. The Storm are now 3-0.
  • I really believe Campbell River won 80% of the faceoffs. It was mind-numbing.
  • With just under 6 minutes left in the 3rd period, Holden Smith tripped Maxim Lefebvre as he took a pass and was behind the defenceman in front of the net. The referees got together to discuss if it was a tripping penalty or a penalty shot.  Unfortunately they chose to go with a 2 minute minor.
  • Comox forward Leon Mikhalchuk had an unreal dangle around a defenceman and then the goalie only to backhand it wide.
  • The Glacier Kings played without a captain again. It is unknown when Curtis Toneff will be naming one.
  • The 3rd period Saturday was the first time Comox has outscored an opponent in any period this season.
  • Next Friday’s home game will be the first of only 4 home games the Glacier Kings will play on a Friday this season.
  • It is nice to see Dave Dueck back for another season as the public address announcer. Not only is he great on the P.A., he is even a better person.

That’s it for today. Have a great rest of your weekend!

Darryl Skender