Tag Archives: Kyle Mayenburg

Comox Puts In 60 Minute Effort In Win

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The Comox Valley Glacier Kings have certainly looked like two different teams so far this season. It’s not surprising considering how early it is. Teams are still looking for chemistry and still trying to find their identity. Last night the Glacier Kings looked good throughout and came out with a 5-3 victory over the Nanaimo Buccaneers. That’s the second time these 2 teams have met with each side winning by 2 goals. The Bucs came into the game tied for first place in the North Division. 

Nanaimo started the scoring on a second consecutive power play. Haden Parker took a boarding penalty which Comox killed off. But after the penalty was over Parker was still on the ice and got into a scrum in front of the opposition net. He ended up taking a roughing penalty for giving Ethan Nordli a face wash. It took 17 seconds for Madden Cruickshank to make them pay on a rebound off the pad of goaltender Anthony Ganoung. The GKings tied it up right after the mandatory timeout. Ethan Gobel took a shot from the left dot that was stopped by Aaron Pichette but the rebound went to Declan Johanneson who made no mistake. The boys in white would score again a few minutes later with a lucky bounce. Zaya Morro stole the puck inside the Nanaimo blue line and and attempted a backhand pass into the slot. The puck ricocheted off Davis Young’s skate and into his own net. The period would end 2-1.

In the second period, Isaac Dunsire had a terrific shift chasing down pucks, forechecking and getting to the dirty area to score his team’s 3rd goal from a crowded slot. The middle stanza would end with Zaya Morro’s second of the game after he was in the right place at the right time burying a rebound off the stick of a Kyle Mayenburg shot from the point.

The Bucs weren’t finished yet however. They got goals by Ethan Nordli and Koen Gauthier to make it a one goal game. Morro would complete his hat trick with an empty net goal just before the buzzer sounded to make it a 5-3 game. Final shots were 45-36 in favor of the Yeti.

With the Buccaneers loss and the Lake Cowichan win on Saturday, Nanaimo has dropped into second place in the North at 4-2-0. Their next game is next Thursday at home to Saanich. Comox remains in the basement but they do improve to 2-4-1 for the season, just 1 point behind both Oceanside and Campbell River. They play again Sunday in Peninsula. The Panthers are a perfect 6-0-0 this season.

Other Observations

  • The Glacier Kings now have points in 3 of their last 5 games.
  • Their PP goal in the 2nd period makes it 4 consecutive games with at least 1 goal with the man advantage.
  • This game marked the 4th time already this season that Comox has had 40+ shots on net.
  • Zaya Morro showed patience on his hat trick goal as he knew time was running down. Instead of shooting the puck from his own blue line, he skated down the ice and shot inside the Bucs line as the buzzer sounded.
  • Speaking of Morro, he has a 3 game point streak  (3G, 3A)
  • The Bucs Madden Cruickshank is off to a great start having points in 5 of his team’s 6 games (10 points).
  • This was just the 2nd time this year Comox has lead after 2 periods. They are 2-0 in those games.
  • Goaltender Aaron Pichette has played in both of Nanaimo’s games against his former team. He is 1-1 against Comox Valley.
  • The Glacier Kings only have 18 hours from the ending of this game to the start of Sunday’s afternoon match.

Darryl Skender

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

Glaciers Kings Win

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It took a little longer than most people expected but the Comox Valley Glacier Kings played a complete game, start to finish, and earned a 5-1 victory over the Kerry Park Islanders. It was a well deserved win for the Yeti who outshot the Islanders 57-19 including 20-3 in the first period. Comox had been knocking on the door in their past couple games but finally got it done on Saturday.

The first goal of the game came on an odd man rush after Kerry Park’s Hudson Closson’s shot from the right dot went high and the puck ricocheted  around the boards out to centre ice. Mateo Moro was the first to get to it and he quickly passed it up to Zaya Morro who went down the right side and took a shot from the top of the circle. Joshua Dubreuil made a kick save but the rebound went to Ethan Gobel who buried it at 9:16 of the opening period. The Glacier Kings made it 2-0 on another odd man rush. Cameron Collins started from his own blue line after a turnover, he actually got checked coming over the opposition blue line but the Islanders defenceman Owen Robertson partially fanned on a clearing attempt and gave it right to Westin Churchill who made no mistake. The goal was credited to Zaya Morro who wasn’t even on the ice. The first period would finish 2-0.

It was more of the same in the 2nd period. Just a couple minutes in, Comox Valley won the faceoff and controlled play without ever relinquishing the puck. They had 2 fantastic chances but were stoned by Dubreuil before Joel Schmidt pulled the puck out of the corner skated along the boards back to the blue line, curled into the slot and fired a wrist shot past the netminder. Declan Johannesen got credit as he was standing in front of the net but didn’t appear to touch the puck. The Kings would make it 4-0 before the middle frame was complete. It was an innocent looking play to say the least. Suhaan Nagra skated with the puck behind the Islanders net and went towards the corner. About halfway to the corner he turned and shot from a terrible angle and it found its way into the back of the net. Shots were 20-7 in that period.

Comox goalie Silas Dromarski would lose his shutout bid midway through the 3rd period. Tomasz Ptaszek was a one-man wrecking crew as he won the offensive zone faceoff, and would also eventually end up in the slot, take a pass, quickly go from forehand to backhand to forehand in traffic and beat Dromarski blocker side. It was a well earned goal. There would be one final goal at the end of the game. It happened on a scramble in front of Kerry Park’s net. Ethan Gobel was parked in front of the crease and went forehand to backhand to slide the puck past the goaltender’s pad. That’s how the game would end.

It was a pretty chippy game at times, especially in the 3rd period but the Glacier Kings did what they needed to do to get the ‘W’. That improves their record to 1-3-1. The loss drops the Islanders to 0-6-0. Up next for Comox will be a tough one in Campbell River Friday night. Remember these 2 teams battled into overtime in their first meeting. The Islanders are off until Saturday when they will play host to the Saanich Predators.

Other Observations

  • Comox had the first 13 shots of the game before Kerry Park notched their first.
  • For the second game in a row, Comox had a goal disallowed. It looked like Kyle Mayenburg scored in the 1st period but it was waved off for goaltender interference.
  • Shots at one point the second period were 33-4 on the score clock.
  • Comox’s 2nd fight of the season happened late in the 3rd period when Cohen Kallin caught Tate Wilkinson with a massive hit behind the Islanders net. The refs deemed it a clean hit. Head coach Curtis Toneff left Kallin on the ice and then couldn’t take him off after a Glacier Kings icing. The Islanders put some tough customers on the ice and after the faceoff Reece Miyoshi, Jayan Biring and Nick Scott all went after him with Scott getting him to fight.
  • Somehow Kerry Park got 2 of the 3 stars in this game… nope I won’t get into it again!!!
  • Congratulations to Silas Drobarsky in his first VIJHL game getting the victory.
  • Comox was not shorthanded in the game. When is the last time you saw that?
  • The Glacier Kings have 4 PP goals in their last 2 games.
  • I’d like to leave this segment by asking everyone to never forget Kerry Park assistant coach Phil Downie who passed away last February unexpectedly. I’m stealing a quote from the Islanders that said, “Phil was so many things to so many people. A friend, a coach, a mentor, a husband, a son, a father. He was one of the great ones.” Well said by a classy organization. Mr. Downie, you will always be missed but you never be forgotten.💔

Darryl Skender