Tag Archives: Haden Parker

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

Thursday Thread

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I don’t know about anyone else but I am excited about this weekend’s games for the Comox Valley Glacier Kings. So far, they’ve played strong teams like Nanaimo, weaker teams like Kerry Park and middle of the road teams like Campbell River, Oceanside and Saanich. All those games have one theme… the Yeti have been in every one of them until the very end. So what’s difference about this weekend? Well… so far they have played a total of 5 games combined over 3 weekends. Starting Friday, it will be 3 games in 3 days. Two games will be against undefeated teams (Peninsula 5-0, Nanaimo 4-0) and their other opponent will be their arch rival (Campbell River). This is as tough as it gets. As I said, the Glacier Kings have been very competitive so far but this will be a definite test.

Going into the weekend, Comox Valley is in pretty good shape healthwise. They already have 13 players that have played in all 5 games and they added some players a couple weeks ago who didn’t start the season but will be in there everyday. Head coach/GM Curtis Toneff talked about the situation heading into this weekend, “Tegan Clayton has a broken clavicle, he’s out for probably another couple months. Other than that, we’re pretty healthy here… knock on wood.” Of course it’s still early and the wear and tear of playing such a physical sport at this level will take its toll at some point with some of the guys. It’s a long season. For now, fingers are crossed.

As long as the coach is carrying three goaltenders, questions will continue to mount on what his position is with carrying three. So I decided to look and see what the other 10 teams in the league are doing. 9 of the other 10 teams in the VIJHL are also carrying 3 goalies. The only squad with just 2 are the Nanaimo Buccaneers. For the Bucs, former Glacier King Aaron Pichette has played two games (2-0, 1.50, .938)  and Adam Ranger has also played in two (2-0, 2.38, .919) so that tandem has done well. I asked Toneff about who was leading the way for his team, “I still think it’s early, they’re all coming from Midget to Junior. They’re all pushing each which is nice, they’re all wanting the net which is what you want to see. There’s just one or two goals a practice that they have had that you just can’t let in. If they all clean that up, it will really get interesting in there. If you look at our goals against and other stuff, goaltending hasn’t been an issue. Hopefully it’s like the rest of the team and they get better and continue to grow.” Here are the stats so far:
Silas Dromarsky, 1-0-0, 1.00, .947
Anthony Ganoung, 0-2-0, 3.04, .902
Timothee Fengos, 0-1-1, 3.46, .901
You have to wonder if all 3 goalies will get starts this weekend considering the 3 games in 3 days. All have played well for the most part.

We’re through 5 games now and the GKings still don’t have a captain and only one assistant captain. Obviously Haden Parker has an ‘A’ which he earned from being an assistant captain last season with the club. So, we are expecting one “C” and two more “A’s” to be named before too long. Curtis did say that he has been proactively collecting information to make sure he makes the right decision, “I did put it to a vote earlier this week. I did that just to give myself a better gauge and to give the players a say in their thoughts. There were about 4 guys that they voted for Captain and they had 2 ‘A’ votes because Haden Parker is lettered nonetheless. That why I made the vote one C’ and two A’s. It was interesting because it didn’t really get me anywhere because the vote was so even and perhaps all over the place. It gives you a good indication that there are 5 or 6 guys that are the leadership group. But who gets what remains to be seen to be honest with you. I don’t want to jump the gun on these decisions like we talked about a few weeks ago.” It will definitely be interesting to see if the players that are given letters will be the veterans or a mixture of new blood and experienced vets.

On gamedays, remember to check out the “Gameday Lineups” Tab on this blog to see the the roster that will be dressed for that days game. Gameday Lineup do not get emailed out to my subscribers like the new posts do. Curtis sends it to me the day of the game and I try to post it right away if possible. That’s it for today, have a great Thursday!

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