Ghostriders Conquer the Storm

Jordan Reid Does it All for Fernie in KIJHL Road Win

Jordan Reid, a 20 yr old forward from Prince George imposed his will on the Kamloops Storm early in the game and scored all three goals for the Fernie Ghostriders in a 3-1 win at the MacPark Sportscentre in North Kamloops last evening.

And... he did it with variety.

His first goal, at 9:35 of the 1st period was a short-handed tally that had Kamloops captain, Jassi Sangha's head spinning. In Sangha's defense, he was kind of hung out to dry. While on the power play, Sangha was playing his usual point position and received a pass at the middle of the blueline with Reid pressuring. With Reid in his face, Jassi tried to get rid of the puck through his legs. Low percentage, no support. The puck bounced off of Reid's shinpads past Sangha and he had a clear breakaway from the Fernie blueline to Storm goaltender Brennan Jones. Reid chose to shoot from between the circles and beat Jones through the five-hole to put the score up 1-0.

Just over a minute later with Scott Kirkam in the box for kneeing, Reid capitalized on the PP with a lovely 3 way passing play between him, David McIvor and Scott Traverse.

Kamloops came out flying in the second period and at 5:26, Devon Gannon popped his 3rd goal of the season with some hard work from linemates David Gore and Jose Reyes.

Around the middle of the 2nd period, the whole game took a shift for the worse as referee Tom Henetiuk started blowing his whistle to command a parade to the penalty box. There were no less than 14 penalties called in the last 11 minutes of the period and he spent most of his time explaining his point of view to the coaches. It looked like he was having an ongoing feud with Storm bench boss, Ed Patterson regarding line changes and he put on a command performance to steal the show. Completely ruined the flow of the game.

The third period was a little tighter with Fernie holding the edge in play. Brennan Jones did his part for Kamloops, keeping them in the game making save after spectacular save. Reid finally got his chance to complete his hat-trick with an empty net tally just after Jones left the net for an extra attacker.

Fernie has always given Kamloops a tough time, with Kamloops winless against them over the last 2 seasons (4 regular season games and 4 straight in the playoffs last year). Although the Storm were seriously shorthanded with Lundy Treneman still out with an ankle injury and Jake Young leaving the game late in the first period from a blow to the head. The team put in a good effort, particularly in the 2nd period before the melee and some of the young guys got some valuable playing time.

With the win, Fernie now moves into first place in their division with a one point lead over the Creston Thundercats who took it on the chin (5-2) courtesy of the Chase Cheifs last night. The visiting teams will change places tonight with Creston in Kamloops and Fernie wandering down the road to Creston.

Player notes:

Great effort from Brennan Jones, his best home game of the season.
Devon Gannon is steadily improving as is Tod Stephenson who's skating and physical play has come up a notch or two in the last 3 weeks.
Payden Wongstedt and Shea Naka are progressing well on D.
Brock Backus, a recent newcomer is starting to find his place and Jose Reyes was probably the most consistent forward on the evening.

On the downside:

I've seen this before at many levels in hockey and I'm not sure how coach Patterson is going to break the habit. The team is having a tough time scoring goals and part of it is finding a way to capitalize on the deep cycle. There seems to be a lot of work down low in the offensive corners but the puck just isn't getting out for quality scoring chances. In fact, it seems that many times it is the only option (cycling) that the forwards have on their minds as they penetrate the offensive zone.
A little creativity and foot movement may go a long ways in beating this rap.

See you at tonight's game against Creston or listen up for free while it lasts on the streaming video broadcast provided by the Kamloops Storm and the KIJHL.

Your comments are welcome but keep it clean.