Stormy Weekend Ends with 4 Points

2 Wins and 1 Loss Keeps Kamloops atop the Division

3 games this weekend reinforced the Kamloops Storm hold on the Okanagan-Shuswap Division of the KIJHL but some chinks have showed in it's armor. Could it be that the loss of speedsters Darren Mann and Brandon Long has upset the balance of the team?

On Friday night the Storm visited division rival Chase and got their lunch handed to them with a 4-2 loss. Newcomer Scott Jackson scored a 2nd period hat trick to put Chase ahead to stay. All reports was that it was a lack lustre effort by the Storm and a spectacular effort by Chase, particularly Jackson. Devin Gannon and Jose Reyes scored the 2 goals for Kamloops.

Saturday night's tilt was a slugfest in Princeton with 4 fights and coaches being suspended. Kamloops easily won 6-2 with Ryan Hanes posting the hat-trick and Josh Caron chipping in for 2 goals. A total of 8 players were ejected for fighting and 2 other 10 minute misconducts.
With one fight in the 2nd period, all hell broke loose in the 3rd period with 3 more fights. The 4th fight between Storm defenseman Daniel Medland-Marchen and Posse's Brody Brewster drew suspensions for both head coaches.

Is there a pattern here? It seems that when ever there is a major dust-up in the Okanagan-Shuswap division, Princeton is involved. Last year it was against Chase. It seems that when things aren't going their way the only way they know how to deal with it is to fight.

Hey, by no means do I want to see the end of fighting in hockey. It has it's place but continual intimidation and lack of respect for the game itself seems to emit from the Posse organization year after year. It's a black-eye on the league.

Back to hockey.

On Sunday, the Grand Forks Border Bruins paid a visit to Mac Park and gave Kamloops everything they could handle. The Storm ended up winning 4-2 but it took 4 third period goals to secure the win. Grand Forks goaltender, Shane Mainprize was steady throughout the game, making save after save but finally succumbed to the pressure as the Storm really picked it up in the 3rd period.

Things looked grim just after the halfway point when Storm speedster Jose Reyes got a cheap call from referee Tom Henetiuk for a hit from behind. The call was out of line for a couple of reasons, first the player turned to draw the penalty and secondly Jose held up and clipped the side of the player. It wasn't hard to recognize. A particularly spectacular save by Storm goaltender, Anthony Manfredi, near the end of the 2nd period seemed to turn it around for the Storm.

With head coach Ed Patterson suspended for the game and co-coach Steve Passmore tending to some personal business, assistant coach Scott Sinclair stepped up to the plate as the bench boss for the game. A well timed time-out near the end of the 2nd period also helped Kamloops get back on track.
After one goal in each of the first two periods by Grand Forks (Jensen and Olsen), Devin Gannon finally got Kamloops on the board.

Sean Menton then went to work setting up 2 more goals and scoring the winner with 3:24 left in the 3rd. Mick Ludvig and David Gore scored on the Menton feeds.

It's a long stretch between home games as the Storm head out on the road for 4 games. Next weekend should be the toughest of the season as Kamloops heads to the West Kootenays to play Nelson, Castlegar and Beaver Valley. The following week they start Friday on the road in Revelstoke and then finally return to Mac Park for a rematch against Castlegar.

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No word on the return of Christian Pedersen yet. He is still in Calgary nursing a sore knee however one has to question whether he intends to return to the Storm as a back up for Manfredi. Pedersen certainly has the tools to be a number 1 somewhere else but not here. Hopefully we can get more concrete answers before the next home game.