Kamloops Storm Goes Up 2 -0 in Series

Big Hit By Hanes on Revelstoke Goaltender Sets Tone for Games 3 & 4

For the 2nd night in a row the Revelstoke Grizzlies employed the defensive minded neutral zone trap and again the Kamloops Storm fought through it and came away with a 1 goal win. Now with a 2-0 lead in the series they move to the smaller surface of the Revelstoke arena.

It will be interesting to see if the trap works better on the smaller surface. It should as there is less room for error when coming out of your own zone and a lot more opportunity for the defenders to lay the body on the attackers. Keeping this in mind, the series could get a lot more physical. This will put a lot more emphasis on both team's discipline factor.

Things started to heat up in the physical department when Revelstoke goaltender Jordan Barry rushed to the side boards near the top end of the faceoff circle to play the puck and was hammered by the Storm's Mike Hanes who was also pursuing the puck. When Hanes figured that Barry was going to beat him there he took it upon himself to make Barry fair game and leveled him with a big hit. This got the blood pressure rising on both teams. Barry was down for a minute and continued the game while Hanes got a 5 minute major for charging and a game misconduct.

Which brings up a whole different issue about goaltenders playing the puck away from their net area that we may revisit at a later time. The feeling with some of the people in the crowd was that if a goaltender roams that far, he should be prepared to mix it up. That being said, Hanes made no attempt to play the puck and should have been penalized for interferance. It was a harsh penalty that luckily, the Storm survived.

It was a strange game in the goal scoring department too. Of the 3 goals scored, all were started by turnovers at or near the defensive blueline and a total of only one assist was credited, that being to Lundy Trenaman on the first goal scored by Jassi Sangha.

Brandon Colonna's goal for Revelstoke as off a Kamloops turn over in the 2nd period and Trenaman capitalized in the 3rd period again by picking up a loose puck on a giveaway at the Revelstoke blueline.

The series resumes tonight at 7:30 and game 4 will go tomorrow night at the same time.

In other KIJHL playoff action Fernie went up 2-0 in their series against Creston 2-0 with a 5-3 effort in Fernie on Tuesday night. Also, in a shocker (at least to the rest of the league) Beaver Valley tuned the favored Nelson Maple Leaf's in their own barn with an impressive 3-0 shutout. That series is tied 1-1 and moves to Beaver Valley tonight.