Kamloops and Chase Split Weekend in Pink

Storm Edges Ahead to 2nd Place in Okanagan -Shuswap Division

A strong effort from veterans Tyler Jackson, Taylor Stuart, Jason Alessio and goaltender Anthony Manfredi saw Kamloops own or share the lead throughout the game Saturday night as the Storm came through with a 5-3 victory on home ice.

Both Jackson and Stuart had a goal and two assists each while Alessio, with a strong skating performance, scored the first and last goals of the evening. Beven Ollek scored the winner with his team leading 12th goal of the season.

The Chase Chiefs got a strong performance from David Harrison, who had 2 goals while Jordie Cool scored the other.

It was a back and forth game where special teams played a big part, particularly for the Storm, as they scored 3 power play goals. The Storm looked like they were in control when they took a 1-0 lead into the 2nd period and made it 2-0 before Chase started to claw back, scoring 2 goals within 6 minutes to tie the score. Ty Jackson, again on the power-play scored before the end of the period to make it 3-2 going into the 3rd.

Again Chase tied the score as Harrison notched his second of the evening half-way through the 3rd period but it was Bevan Ollek with a mid-air tip on a Logan Hawgood shot past goaltender Riley Wall that put the Storm ahead to stay. Jason Alessio finalized the scoring with an empty net tally.

There were only a couple of altercations of note... **Catlin McLeod for the Storm took on Scott Renner during the only real fight in the game... while there was a bit of a donnybrook near the end of the game when Storm goaltender Anthony Manfredi got ran over in his crease with about 10 seconds to go.

The McDonald's 3 Stars of the Game:

1) Tyler Jackson
2) Taylor Stuart
3) David Harrison

The Men in Pink promotion for Breast Cancer was success with lots of stuff donated and auctioned off. The Storm players wore pink sweaters that were also auctioned off after the game.
It was a packed house of 900+ as both Kamloops and Chase fans were entertained by the two rival teams.

League Standings

Box Score - Saturday - Kamloops 5 Chase 3

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On Friday night in Chase, the Chiefs scored a late goal in the 3rd period to pull out a 3-2 win against the Storm in another great game. I wasn't there but I understand that the fans filled the Chase arena too.
Brock Balson had 2 for Chase while David Harrison scored the winner with 2:19 left in the 3rd period. Colten Moen and Brady Fuller replied for the Storm who were outshot 44-22. Anthony Manfredi felt the heat between the pipes for Kamloops while Jordan Bytelaar had a somewhat easier evening at the other end for the Chiefs.

Box Score - Friday - Chase 3 Kamloops 2

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Unlike the last couple of games in Kamloops, the coaches managed to stay on the bench for the entire game. The officiating crew did a pretty good job letting the players play. The players and coaches, in turn, showed discipline and for the most part, stuck to playing the game. I believe that the crowd enjoyed and appreciated the flow of the game.

**apologies for the error earlier in this post when I identified Colton Moen as the combatant for the Kamloops Storm during this game.
Colton is injured and the combatant was Catlin McLeod...
thanks to the 3 readers who quickly let me know

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Spencer Donaldson still hasn't returned to the team but Storm Ass't manager, Gary Donaldson has been quietly doing a good job for the Storm on the sponsorship end of things.

Dylan Becker is serving a 5 game suspension after receiving a match penalty last weekend in Spokane. We haven't heard what the basis of the infraction was but 5 games is a pretty healthy penalty. He will be eligible to play again on Nov 6.

Sheldon McDonald is practicing again. Expect him to be back within the next week or so to help shore up the defensive ranks for the Storm.

Next game for the Storm... Wed Oct 28 in Sicamous
Next home game... Oct 30 vs the North Okanagan Knights

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Note... I'll be out of town for next weekend's games. Mike Potestio will be doing the play-by-play on Friday night and possibly on Sunday against Princeton. I should be back on Nov 7 for the home game against the Sicamous Eagles.
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