Grizzlies Maul the Kamloops Storm

Embarrassing 11-2 Home Ice Loss Leaves Bench all but Empty

Official game Notes:

The Grizzlies opened the scoring at 2:30 of the first period, on the power play, and never relinquished the lead.
The Grizzlies would score five more times with the extra man, as the Storm had trouble staying out of the sin bin. By the end of the night the Storm had 124 minutes in the box while the Grizzlies had 42.
The Storm had goals from Tyler Jackson (in the first period, on the power play) and Jason Alessio in the third period.
Riley Spraggs led the Grizzlies with two goals and two assists, while Caleb Roy had four assists.
Brand Irving, Jordan Bledsoe and Bruce Silvera each had two goals. Brandan Burge, Jakob Reichert and Dayton Martens had singles.
Andrew Parent was in net for the Grizzlies.
Anthony Manfredi started for the Storm but was pulled when the Grizzlies made it 6-1 at 14:39 of the second period. Will Frolek finished the game.
The Storm record falls to 5-2-0-2.

Editorial:

**What a Fiasco!

It was ugly right from the get-go. And as I have witnessed, over the last 25 years of hockey involvement... a Kamloops team never gets a break from a referee from Kelowna.

I don't think that there were ill intentions going into this game. Kamloops lost a close one the night before in Revelstoke and by all accounts, this should have been a good game. It never fails that when the officiating crew come in and try to set the tone to show that they are in charge, the game goes south. We have seen it time and time again. Inconsistent calls, scrums between the linesmen and the ref on a regular basis (usually because the ref doesn't see the infraction that they are calling and they allow the linesmen to make his mind up for him) and of course, always talking to the coaches because they sure as heck don't see the same game that these guys are calling. Seems like they want to reduce the game to Ringette.

My assessment, even before we get to the penalty stuff, is that a good measure of how competent the referee is reflected in their accuracy to hand out assists on goals. Many of these guys in this league either don't pay attention enough and/or they don't even bother to ask a player if he touched the puck or who they got the pass from. I'm sure that if team officials and the players themselves don't make a point of adjusting the score sheet (which they have a right to do) within a certain amount of time after the game, individual stats would suffer even more. Even though it is considered in bad taste to pad one's stats, it's just as bad miss them... especially when points are so vital in recognition to getting to the next level.

I have got news for them... NO ONE IN THE BUILDING COMES TO WATCH THE OFFICIALS REDUCE A GAME TO UTTER NONSENSE.

In my opinion, the officiating appears to be the catalyst to this deterioration of the game.

One crappy call here, another make-up call there, border-line calls that result in game suspensions or misconducts. They are ruining the friggin game... not only for the players but for the paying public. The linesmen are not any better. They can't seem to be consistent for icings and faceoffs are a joke. Drop the puck for god's sake. They fart around long enough to promote encroachment, toss someone, then half the time they don't even wait until the new centre-man is set. What is that? It happens to both teams until every one in the crowd wants to stick their fingers in their throats to offer their dinner to the officiating crew.

Case in point about the borderline calls.

Bevin Ollek of the Storm is 6ft 5inches tall. He's a big boy. His right to body check all but the biggest guys in the league has been virtually eliminated by the hitting to the head rule. These guys that are 5ft nothing, take liberties and then when they leave themselves open for a hit. Because of Bevin's height, of course a check comes in at the head, not purposely and usually not with a stick... What the hell is suppose to do with his arms... raise them so he leaves his mid-section open and give them a belly push? It's ridiculous... he has to either give up on the way the game is supposed to be played or expose himself to injury. There are a few other guys in the league that suffer this injustice too.

This season, the Storm seem to have received an inappropriate number of hitting from behind calls too. From my vantage point (and I have a pretty good one), the penalty on Brady Fuller on Friday night was inappropriately called. Perhaps a hit to the head but certainly not a bonafide hit from behind. So, instead of the misconduct... he's gone for the game.

We are seeing this kind of crap officiating game after game. These young men play hard (as they are supposed to) and the officials seem bound and determined to make it their game, not the players. The calls get so bad that when a player or coach questions the validity of the call, they get the boot. It appears that the officials are beyond approach.

Erring on the side of caution rather than letting the play flow and allowing the players to work things out seems to have gone by the wayside. I don't condone the lack of discipline that the Storm players showed at the end of the game, they got out of hand as the score ballooned. But 7 power-play goals? That makes the 5 on 5 time 3-0 for the Grizzlies which was really about what the score should have been.

Sorry for the rant but I call them like I see them.

**the opinions expressed above are strictly those of the author and in no way represent the views of the team, the Kamloops Storm or it's management/coaching team.

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Next game is Oct. 10 in Armstrong as the Storm visit the North Okanagan Knights. Game time is 7 p.m. Don't expect Tyler Jackson to be there or even coach Greg Hawgood. Jackson got a double game misconduct near the end of the game and Hawgood is subject to the league fighting rules that has him suspended when the fight total in a game reaches more than 3. This game, they had 4. It seems odd that Hawgood would get suspended for the actions of the team near the end of the game since he was banished from the bench (arguing a questionable call... perhaps with some superlatives for good measure) and was no longer in control of the team. I guess we will have to see what shakes out on this one.

Injuries are now becoming a concern. 2 more players went down with injuries on Sunday. Fulton got a puck in the foot and Skinner looked like he had a serious lower body injure, either foot, ankle or knee. In any case, he wasn't putting any weight on one of his legs as he was helped off the ice by his teammates.


Next home game at McArthur Island Sports Centre is Oct. 11 when they Storm host the Chase Chiefs at 2 p.m.