The Sicamous Eagles have taken a 3-1 season series lead on archrival Kamloops Storm posting victories in both locations this weekend.
On Friday night the Eagles out shot the Storm 43-27 and came away with a 5-2 win in Sicamous. I wasn't at the game but by all accounts, Storm goaltender Anthony Manfredi did all he could to keep the team respectively in the game. It was a solid night on the score sheet for The Eagles top line of Aaron Buat, Scott Feldermeyer and Jarryd Tenvaanholt as they accounted for 3 of the 5 goals. Other goals came from perennial Storm buster, Derek Huisman and a short-handed effort from Cain Franson.
Newcomer Rylee Orr and and Jason Alessio tallied for the Storm... Alessio's being a PP marker in the last 2 minutes of the game.
Saturday night at the McArthur Island Sports and Events Centre in Kamloops produced a much tighter affair with the Eagles again, swooping in to take a 4 point night away from the Storm. Again the Eagles dominated the Storm 39-29 in shots on goal and again, Manfredi was sharp all night although he would have liked to have the first period goal back as Aaron Buat froze Manfredi and fired a low shot to the far, bottom corner of the net.
The second goal for the Eagles was a power play marker half way through the 3rd period when Huisman picked up a rebound on a shot by Garrett Earley.
The Storm made it exciting with a late goal by Chase Edwards. Edwards was quick on the get after a faceoff to the left of Sicamous net and beat goaltender Joel Widen with a sharp angled wrister. Kamloops pulled Manfredi with just over a minute left to play but the Eagles did a good job in bottling up the Storm and keeping them on the conservative side of centre ice.
This was a big weekend for the Eagles who are now tied with the Storm for 2nd place in the Division with 2 games in hand.
Storm scoring leader, Taylor Stuart, is out with pneumonia, which obviously took away from the mediocre scoring punch that the Storm has displayed lately. They really have struggled in the scoring department. Stuart and Jason Alessio lead the team in points with 19, tied for 34th in league scoring. Balanced team scoring can be a good thing but the team seems to be lacking an offense that can really take charge. Bevin Ollek has been a goal producer when he is in close but lately that hasn't been happening enough either. Bevin had one great shift in the 2nd period last night in Kamloops and then all but disappeared for the rest of the night. In his defense, he took a shot on the ankle in the first period that chopped him down temporarily.
The Storm have another big challenge today as they face the Creston ThunderCats at the Mac Park Center. Creston sits 4th in their tough division but has squeaked out 2 wins already this weekend, defeating North Okanagan 5-3 on Friday night and Chase, 4-3 last night in Chase.
Cody Jules and Dominic Alec are also injured right now with concussions (that's what I heard).
It was good to see Spencer Donaldson back in the line-up after a 3 week sabbatical and also having ass't GM, Gary Donaldson back in the booth where he does a great job on colour commentary.
Thanks to Mike Potestio and Barry Dewar who filled in for Dave Ouellette on the play-by-play last weekend and Jeremy Salamandyk who contributes to the blog whenever he can.
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Just wondering why the two 16yr old defenceman log more time than the other D men? I noticed lately that they are being put into critical situations (Power play & the last 2 minutes of games that need to be won). I guess the older, bigger D men can't cut it for the coaching staff? Too bad I think a couple of games could have gone different this weekend.
ReplyDeleteIs the storm looking at getting more scoring
ReplyDelete1) I sure hope they find more scoring. The team has room for 2 more 20 year olds so I would think that 1 of them, whenever the right deal comes about, will be a trigger man.
ReplyDelete2) Not being privy to the coach's thinking, I can't tell you why 2 16year old D-men are playing in crucial situations. I can only guess.
I will say that despite their apparent lack of experience, these 2 youngsters are two of the few that have shown a genuine enthusiasm for the game. The effort that I saw from a few of guys was brutal, including a couple of recent signings.
Regarding the 16 yr olds... it's mid season and the coach had got to find out who he can count on. These kids just need to play smarter and the only way that is going to happen is if they are put in the position to do so. When the schedule is really at it's most important, the coach will know who is up for the challenge.