Tough Weekend for 2 Points

Busted in Fernie - Polished in Golden

After a road weary performance on Friday night the Storm moved further down to road to Fernie, where the Ghostbusters were fresh off of a rare 2-1 defeat to the Creston Valley Thundercats. It had all the makings of a barnburner but with the enthusiasm that the Storm brought early in the game the only thing that was on fire was the Ghostbusters.

Led by league leading point getter, Martin Croteau, Fernie jumped to a 2-0 first period lead and never looked in doubt the rest of the way as they cruised to a 4-1 win over the Storm on Saturday. They out-skated and out worked a Storm team that showed little discipline in racking up 7 first period penalties and only giving up one power play marker. In all, Fernie scored 3 power play markers and Kamloops scored one.

Coach Perrier had a number of issues to address after two straight road losses and may have made some headway in a team meeting Sunday morning before heading to Golden.

When the Storm hit the ice in Golden they looked like a different team. There were some lines shuffled and a sense of urgency in their pace. In the first period the teams played pretty much even with lots of energy. In the 2nd period the Storm outskated, out-hustled, out-mustled and out disciplined Golden building an commanding 3-0 lead. The Storm seemed to be on their way to a solid victory.

Then something happened in the 3rd period to change the momentum. Kamloops began to have discipline challenges that left them short-handed to a rejuvenated Golden Jets team who came out banging and crashing in the 3rd period. With 3:36 remaining in the game, Mac Thiessen scored the Jets 2nd power play goals of the period with a howzer of a shot over the headed of a dipping Anthony Manfredi and nicely tucked under the crossbar.
The Jets continued with the sustained pressure and pulled their goaltender. Kamloops got lucky and got the puck into the Jets zone and scored and empty netter with 29 seconds remaining.

It's 2 points that the Storm needed. They have struggled on the road and this was their first road-win of the season.

My weekend 3 stars: Anthony Manfredi, Anthony Collins and Ryan Bullock.