Tag Archives: Zaya Morro

Wolves Win 6th Straight

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The Westshore Wolves jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead and held on for a 6-4 victory over the Comox Valley Glacier Kings on Friday. It was a valiant effort by the Yeti as they came back after being down early to take a 2 goal lead but Westshore, who have now won 6 in a row, proved why they are the highest scoring team in the league. It was disappointing to give up the lead but the boys played hard and looked gassed by the end. Full marks to the Wolves who are a very good skating team which is just one of the reasons their offence is so good.

Westshore came out of the gates skating hard and earned an early 1-0 lead when Linden Hoskins took a wrist shot from the top of the circle that Timothee Fengos stopped but Owen Hentschel tapped in the rebound from inside the crease. The Wolves then went up 2-0 late in that opening stanza when defenceman Kyle Mayenburg got caught up ice on a bad bounce and Westshore had a 2 on1, Ashton Vine-Sullivan slid a perfect pass over to Jackson Buie who went forehand-backhand on Fengos before putting it up high glove-side.

But, with just over a minute left, Comox would cut the lead in half when Leon Mikhalchuk centered the puck from behind the the net and Zaya Morro got to it in a crowd of sticks and skates and somehow put it past goaltender Ander Reyes. The period would end at 2-1. Shots on goal were 13-11 in favor of the Yeti.

In the second period, the GKings would tie it up on the power play. Cameron Collins fed the puck to the side of the net to Ethan Gobel who slid it in front to Leon Mikhalchuk and he backhanded it past Reyes. Just 2:21 later Comox would take their first lead of the game with another power play goal. Cameron Collins passed to the left side boards to Suhaan Nagra who immediately fed it cross-ice to Ethan Gobel. The 18 year old blasted a one-timer past the goalie and it was 3-2.

The Glacier Kings weren’t done there. Shortly after a successful penalty kill, they would have a 2 on 1 of their own. Kaden Ryan turned the puck over at his own blue line and Ethan Gobel went in and took a shot that Reyes made the save on but Cohen Kallin got the rebound and just got it by the sprawling goaltender. Suddenly it was 4-2 for the road side.

However, you knew you weren’t going to keep Parker Atkinson off the score sheet forever. He gave a perfect tape to tape pass to Noah Gebicki in the slot who one-timed it into a wide open net to make it 4-3.

That’s how the middle frame ended. Shots were 17-6 for the Glacier Kings.

Things got even more tense in the 3rd when Noah Gebicki went over the blue line and both d-men cheated over towards him. That left Kansys Seney all by himself and he made no mistake. That tied the game at 4.

Jasper Fellbaum would put the Wolves ahead for good after a lucky bounce and he found himself wide open in front, then beat Fengos on the blocker side. Alejandro Snead would add an insurance marker after that to make it 6-4. Shots were 11-7 for the home team in final period.

The loss drops the Glacier Kings record to 5-7-2-1 as they remain in 5th place in the North. They will be at home to Saanich on Saturday. Meanwhile the Wolves win improves their line to 13-2-1-0 and are now 4 points ahead of 2nd place Peninsula. Their next action is next Wednesday when they host Campbell River.

Other Observations:

  • Westshore had 12 different players with at least a point.
  • Comox Valley had 3 players with multiple points.
  • During the Wolves 6 game winning streak, they have outscored their opponents 31-16.
  • GKings scored 4 consecutive goals from the near the end of the 1st to midway through the 2nd, the Wolves then scored 4 consecutive to finish the game.
  • Kansys Seney extended his point streak to 6 games (5G, 4A)
  • After going 1 for 27 on the PP in October, Comox Valley scored on their first 2 PP opportunities of the game. For some reason, the online scoring shows they were 2 for 2 but were actually 2 for 4.
  • Love the broadcast from Marlon Martens. He’s one of the best in the league. I actually sent him a friend request on Facebook a long time ago but he didn’t accept lol.
  • Leon Mikhalchuk now has a goal in 4 consecutive games.
  • This is the first time this season that Comox has lost a game when leading after 2 periods (4-1-0-0).
  • Attendance was just 93 people at the game. The capacity for the Q Centre is 2780 including standing room.
  • Ethan Gobel is the only Glacier King averaging more than a point per game (13 points in 10 games).
  • The 6 goals allowed are the most the Yeti have given up this season. Their previous high was 5 which was also against Westshore. They had only allowed 3 goals total in their previous 3 games.
  • The GKings continue to lead the VIJHL in Penalty killing. In October, they have only allowed 2 goals on 25 shorthanded situations.

Darryl Skender

Bombers – Glacier Kings Preview

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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

Glacier Kings Lose Third Straight

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The Victoria Cougars came out of the gates fast and jumped on Comox early and skated to a 4-1 victory over the Glacier Kings. From the opening faceoff, Victoria showed a lot of speed and tenacity. The Cougars have played very well in October after a so-so September for their standards. They won just 3 of their first 7 games but now have reeled off 4 straight wins. Comox Valley ended September winning 3 of 4 but are 0-3 this month.

The Cougars got on the board early when a point shot from Quintin Bortolotto was deflected perfectly by Joseph Melichar for his 12th goal of the year.

Comox Valley would tie the game late in the opening stanza when Kingston Gowans shot the puck high off the glass in his own corner out to center where Zaya Morro tipped it ahead to put Cohen Kallin on a partial breakaway and beat goaltender Lane Maarhuis short-side. The period would end tied at 1.

Shots were 13-9 in favor of Victoria.

Then in the second frame, the highlight goal of the night came from Joseph Melichar while shorthanded. He stole the puck at the offensive blue line from a GKings forward and undressed another player to go in all alone to make it 2-1. They would never relinquish the lead after that. Shortly after, Carter Zeeben picked up a loose puck at center, circled down the left side over the blue line, went around Zaya Morro and roofed it past Anthony Ganoung. Just like that it was 3-1.

I watched an interesting play about 15 times in that period when the referee called an unsportsmanlike diving penalty on Ethan Gobel. It appeared to me every time that he was high sticked in the face. Victoria’s Haydyn Brooks was even headed for the penalty box when the referee told him that the infraction wasn’t against him. I’m still scratching my head that Gobel received the penalty. Shots were 12-8 for Comox Valley.

The Yeti played a pretty good third period but the only scoring would be an empty net goal by James Clarke late in the game to salt it away. Final shots were 35-35.

The loss drops the Glacier Kings record to 3-6-2 as they remain tied for last place with Oceanside but the Generals have 2 games in hand. Comox hosts Port Alberni Saturday. Victoria improves to 7-3-1 and are just 1 point behind Peninsula for second place in the South. They are off until Tuesday when they travel to Kerry Park.

Other Observations

  • The difference in the game ended up being the Cougars scoring 2 goals in a span of 1:10 in the 2nd period.
  • Comox did not score a PP goal for a 3rd straight game after having scored at least 1 in 5 straight.
  • Cohen Kallin scored a goal in his 3rd consecutive game for the Yeti.
  • There were remarks made in the game that were totally unjustified and over the top.  Let’s give this league a little dignity. I will leave it at that.
  • Glacier Kings have scored a total of 4 goals in their last 3 games.
  • Joseph Melichar is a stud. There’s no denying that. I had said I was looking forward to watching him play and I wasn’t disappointed.
  • Speaking of Melichar, he has at least a point in all 11 games and has multiple points in his last 9 contests.
  • This was the 2nd shorthanded goal Comox has allowed this season.
  • Simon Semancik was held pointless for the first time this year. He had 9 points in his last 3 games and at least 1 in his previous 9.

Darryl Skender