The Comox Valley Glacier Kings are looking to break their 3 game losing streak tonight when they play host to the Port Alberni Bombers. Comox had yesterday off after losing in Victoria the night before. Meanwhile Port Alberni lost 6-0 last night to Peninsula in a game where the Panthers outshot them 22-2 in the third period. The standings are crazy in the North Division this year. The Glacier Kings are in 6th place but a win can put them into a tie for 3rd place and only 1 point behind the 2nd place team.
Getting back to tonight’s game, Comox will try to take advantage of home ice, something they haven’t really done much of this year. They have won just 1 of 4 games at the Sports Centre this year. The Bombers haven’t been much better on the road with a 2-4-1 record. After tonight, Port Alberni will have played 8 of their 13 games away from the Multiplex.
One thing that the GKings have struggled on lately is scoring, especially on the power play. After having a streak of 5 straight game with at least 1 PP goal, they haven’t scored one in their past 3. I asked head coach/GM Curtis Toneff about the struggles, “Ya, a couple guys efforts, execution isn’t what it needs to be. Sometimes I wear a lot of hats so I’m focusing on it a little more this week. I told the guys about 3 weeks ago that their 5 on 5 play will play a factor in their power play situations. And if they’re on the power play already, their work ethic on the power play would decide if they stay on the power play or not. A couple guys have found themselves on the power play and a couple guys found themselves in the stands. That’s the reality of it in junior hockey.” They are currently 0/13 with the man advantage in October.
As much as the power play is struggling, it’s just the opposite with their penalty kill. In the last 4 games, they’ve held the opponents off the score sheet in 11 of their last 12 shorthanded situations. Toneff talked about his club’s PK, “I think that guys that have been around the team and around my style of effort. A lot of our veterans kill. We don’t beat it up a ton to be honest. We have our values and the guys stick to them and have done a great job in executing that so far.” The Glacier Kings are killing penalties at an 85% clip. The Yeti have actually done a pretty good job staying out of the box as there are only 3 teams with less total penalties minutes this season.
The goaltending duo of Timothee Fengos and Anthony Ganoung has been pretty good so far. One knock on Fengos so far is that he has made some terrific saves and has played well but it seems he lets one goal a game in that he should have maybe stopped. I asked Curtis about that,” Fengos is 17 which reminds me of Luca Vanzo last year, he stole the net down the stretch. I bet you in September and October that there were a few goals that he would like back. He ended up taking the net in the playoffs. I think as long as you work through the problems, as long as you’re making big saves, I’d rather give up those goals unfortunately now than down the stretch. I think Timmy is a very good goalie, he’s very sound east to west, moves well and I think has a lot of potential. I’d rather him just work through whatever that issue is, maybe a confidence thing, don’t get all up tight about it. I think the rest of it is there. He knows that he has to clean that 1 goal up every night. He’ll get another crack at it soon enough. In practice with some of the things he’s done, we have a good thing going there as a whole.” Fengos has put up a 0-3-1 record with a 3.77 GAA and a .909 save percentage so far this year.
As for Anthony Ganoung, he has played a couple more games than Fengos. Ganoung has also been very good and is the only goaltender with back to back starts for Comox this season. I asked the coach if Ganoung is considered the go-to guy yet, “Well, they’re so different (Ganoung and Fengos). I would say at this present moment, absolutely, you gotta go with the guy that’s won the games. He’s got the hot hand. With Anthony, it’s a different look in there. Timothee is more of a focused type guy, a little bit quieter in his gameday like a lot of goalies. Then Anthony brings that kind of swagger to our team it seems. It’s not like you get the same thing in there which is nice. As a coach, you have to read who the best fit is. And on top of that, Silas (Dromarsky) has gotten better every day too so he’ll get opportunities shortly to build his stat sheet. It’s positive that I got three guys I like right now. Hopefully our guys play hard in front of them.” After Thursday’s loss, Ganoung now sports a 2-3-1 record and a 2.83 GAA with a .922 save percentage.
The Glacier Kings enter tonight at 3-6-2 while Port Alberni sports a 5-6-1 record. A win by the home team would pull them within one point of the second place Bombers and still have a game in hand on them. The two squads are challenged offensively averaging less than 3 goals per game each. Both sides only have one player among the top 20 scorers in the VIJHL. Bomber forward Kash Nicklin is tied for 16th with 12 points in 10 games. Zaya Morrow for the GKings is tied for 18th with 11 points in 11 games.
Curtis Toneff has announced that Timothee Fengos will be the starter in net for Comox. Puck drop is 6:30 pm at the CVSC. Enjoy the game everyone.
Darryl Skender
