Nelson Sweeps KIJHL Final

In Game 4 Thriller



The Nelson Leafs showed resilience in Game 4 of the KIJHL Final on Thursday night when, after taking a 3-0 lead, losing the lead, taking it back, losing it again and then finally putting it away with 2:01 left in the 3rd period to defeat the Kamloops Storm.

It was a see-saw battle that saw the Kamloops crowd playing "taps" after a disastrous first period when Anthony Manfredi was pummeled with 3 goals by the Leafs and pulled himself after only 16:37 gone. It wasn't Manfredi's fault and the team, well, they were awful. The Leafs needed only 14min 12 seconds to build that lead, including the first 2 in less than 4 minutes. It was a quiet building during the first intermission.



I don't know what was said between periods (I can just imagine!) but the Storm came out in the 2nd period and scored 4 straight goals to take the lead. Goals were scored by Ryan Hanes and Devin Gannon with some tough close in work around the net.



Then Goode, on a pretty set-up by Brock Backus tied the game at 3 and seconds later it was David Gore batting the puck out of mid-air to take the lead. The building was frantic.




This time, the Leafs were shell-shocked and with a well timed time-out, the Leafs regrouped to answer with one goal (a beautiful effort by talented Kai Bauman) to tie the score before the final period.

In the 3rd period it was the Leafs that came out flying again when the skillful Dylan Walchuk scored only 17 seconds gone to make it 5-4 Leafs.



The Storm, still feeling the momentum from the 2nd period didn't cower and Devin Gannon scored his 2nd goal of the game to tie it at 5.





The game was pretty even up until late in the period when the Leafs started exerting more pressure and Michael Spring found an opening while Christiansen was screened and buried the final goal with 2:01 to go in the game. The Storm had some pressure on at the end of the game as they pulled Christainsen for 6 attackers but Nelson goaltender Garrett Beckwith stood tall and barred the Storm from the comeback.

In everyone's eyes, if it had to be a loss, it was a great effort to end the season. The Kamloops boys played hard after the 1st period, probably as intense as they have been all year. Nelson was just the better team and congratulations to them. We hope that they represent the league well in the Cyclone Taylor Cup, coming up this coming week.

I would personally like to wish all the graduating players well and hope that their futures are proud and prosperous. Also, there will be a number of players moving on with try-outs in the BCHL or WHL. Good luck to them at the next level. Many of the players will be returning for another year and they will be the core of the future for the team. We will look forward to seeing them in September.

I would like to acknowledge all the sponsors and their commitment to help the Storm become a mainstay in the Kamloops Hockey scene. The team couldn't do it without them.



And finally, to the coaches, staff and volunteers that give their time enthusiastically to make the Storm a real community team.



Barry and Sandy Dewar have put together a solid team both on and off the ice, running a quality organization that is appreciated by the fans and supporters in Kamloops and across the league.
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All game photos taken by Judi Dupont,

2009 Kamloops Storm Awards Banquet

On Sunday Feb 22 the Kamloops Storm held their annual awards banquet and presentation at the McArthur Island Curling Club lounge. It was a good turnout and the potluck meal buffett was absolutely spectacular. Thanks to everyone who brought food . The desserts were decadent.

There were a total of 9 Awards given out. The Award winners are as follows:

The Coaches award sponsored by DICO Holdings/The Mortgage Centre :

David Gore and Anthony Manfredi

A & W Most Points Award:

David Gore

Radio NL Jim Harrington Game Breaker Award:

Jose Reyes

A & W Hard Hat Award:

Devin Gannon

Home Hardware Defenseman of the Year Award:

Shae Naka and Mike McCance

Eastside Marios Fan Favorite Award:

Mick Ludvig

Sandi Dewar Unsung Hero Award:

Scott Kirkham

Canada Logo Rookie of the Year:

Ryan Hanes

The McDonalds Three Star Award Winners:

Devin Gannon and Anthony Manfredi

Playoffs begin on Tuesday Feb 24 and Saturday Feb 28 at 7pm at McArthur Island Sports centre.

Barry Dewar, General Manager - Kamloops Storm

Chiefs Calm the Storm

Rematch Tonight at Mac Park Sports Centre by Barry Dewar

The Storm came out flat last night against the Chiefs, who get full marks for the win. While we came back hard in the second period it was not enough. The final score was 5-3 for the Chiefs. That was the seventh meeting between the two teams and tonight is the final regular season match up. Chase holds the season series lead 4-3. Tonight the Storm want to even that record so that they can go into playoffs with a positive finish.

The Storm were without several key players due to a line brawl last weekend. Forwards Ryan Hanes, Scott Kirkham and Austin Goode and defenseman Daniel Medland Marchen all watched the game from the stands and will be in the lineup tonight. The Storm brought up affiliate players Duncan Shultz and Daniel Buchanan for the game and both played well.

In the previous 7 games both teams have won one game in the other teams building. The total scoring has Kamloops with 25 goals while Chase has 20. Kamloops has had 2 lopsided wins 5-1 Jan 23 in Kamloops, a Dominos Pizza night and and 8-1 win in Chase on October 24. the rest of the games have been 2 goals or less. Riley Wall, a Kamloops minor hockey product has won all the games in net for Chase and has started every game against the Storm but Jordan Bytelaar did play 43 minutes in the October 24 game and 20 minutes in the Jan 23 game although Wall got the loss in both of those games. Manfredi started the first 6 games against Chase and Kyle Graham started last night. One of the Chase wins included an empty net goal, so other than 2 games they have all been close.

The Storm take on the Kimberley Dynamiters a 2pm Sunday start tomorrow. It is the return to Kamloops of Tory Caldwell who was traded away at the start of the season. Tory has not played the last couple of games for the Dynamiters but I am sure he will be looking to show his old team that they made a mistake. The game also will have Dominic Alec in the lineup. Dominic came to camp in September but thought he would have a bigger role with another team. He is playing well for the Dynos.

Tonight’s match up with Chase is also a Diabetes fundraiser . All of the jerseys being worn will be auctioned off. Minimum bid is $50 and some have some gas certificates included courtesy of Husky/Mohawk Gas stations in Kamloops. A great cause a very unique prize and maybe some gas sounds too good to be true.

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Playoff home dates will be February 24, February 28 March 2 and March 3 all games at 7pm. Get your tickets for one or all of the games. On sale now.

The MAGIC NUMBER is down to 2

For Kamloops Storm to Clinch First Spot in the Division
by Barry Dewar

Any combination of 2 wins by the Storm or 2 losses by the Sicamous Eagles will ensure first place for the Storm. With our destiny in our own hands we head to Princeton this weekend for a game against the Posse.

The Storm will still likely be without Daniel Medland Marchen, Ryan Hanes, Brock Backus and Jamie Galbraith. Galbraith did skate this week and is a possibility but outside chance at best. Hanes and Medland Marchen are both expected to dress for the Kamloops Blazers this weekend, so the Storm will be looking to fill the void with some affiliate player call ups. We expect 15 year old Brett De Frias, 15 year old Josh Rasmussen, 17 year old Alex Marr and maybe 17 year old Spencer Donaldson in the lineup. All players are from the Thompson Blazers Major Midget team which has a bye this weekend.

De Frias will be playing his third game for the club, while Rasmussen will be playing his second game. Alex Marr who is the captain of the major midget team will be playing his 5th game. Donaldson if he suits up will be in his first game as a Storm Player. Donaldson is third on the major midget team for goals and tied for the lead in points with 10 goals and 12 assists. Marr has 2 goals and 10 assists with 50 pims while Rasmussen is 3-3 and 54 pims and De Frias is 5 goals 5 assists with 34 penalty minutes.

Backus has not yet decided if he wants to play since returning to Kamloops from university.

It is expected that a couple of regular players could be seeing action in the BC Hockey League over the next few weeks. Merritt made several trades at the January 10th deadline and have been going with a short bench as they complete their season. Several players have been affiliated to various Junior A teams including Anthony Manfredi, Daniel Medland Marchen, Scott Kirkham, Sean Menton, David Gore, Jose Reyes, Mick Ludvig, Mike McCance and Kyle Graham.

This weekend the Kamloops Storm visit Princeton for the 6th and final meeting until playoffs. Kamloops won the first game in September 3-2 in overtime,. The second meeting was a 9-2 Domino Pizza night with Anthony Manfredi, Mick Ludvig and Peter Soroka as the stars. The third meeting in November was a 6-2 win by the Storm. Ryan Hanes had a hat trick in that game and Josh Caron had a pair of goals. December saw the teams play twice. The first was a 4-1 win for the Storm while the second game was a 5-4 shoot out win for the Posse. Taylor Stuart had 2 goals in the first meeting and 1 in the second meeting against his old team. In the shootout they had 12 shooters each with only John Minot of Princeton and Kyle L'Arrivee beating Kyle Graham who was in the net for the Storm while only Austin Goode scored for the Storm.

The Storm needs to play close attention to Wade Masch and Jason Allessio to earn the victory this weekend. The Storm won both of their games last weekend while Chase lost 4 games last week starting with a loss to the Chase Chiefs in Princeton, followed by a grueling road trip to Fernie, Kimberley and Creston. Next home action for the Storm will be February 7th against Chase for the Juvenile Diabetes fundraiser and on February 8th when Tory Caldwell and the Kimberley Dynamiters come to town.

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.

Hanes and Goode Dominate Score Sheet

Tory Caldwell Wins 2 Between the Pipes!

With a 2 game sweep of weekend games, the Kamloops Storm are only 1 point out of first place in the division with 2 games in hand. Currently tied with the Chase Chiefs and only 1 point behind the Sicamous Eagles, the Storm are starting to make some noise in the division.

Rookie Ryan Hanes and 3rd year vet Austin Goode dominated on the score sheet this past weekend, scoring 6 of the 7 goals by the Storm, while Travis Cech scored a game-opening, short handed goal in Sicamous on Friday.

Tory Caldwell was impressive, stopping 28/29 on Friday night and 29/30 on Saturday's game for a weekend GAA of 1.00 and Save Percentage of 0.9661... rather stellar I might say and certainly putting a little pressure on regular starter and past MVP, Anthony Manfredi.

On the weak side, the power play was a miserable 0 for 7 while they still managed to score one short-handed marker by Cech. To date the team has 4 Power Play goals and 3 Short-Handed goals, an interesting ratio, would you agree?

Coach Patterson has been putting an awful lot of faith in the inherant first line of Reyes, Gore and Ludvig, who for some reason can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn door these days. You gotta wonder if there is a little shake up in the offering, noting that this line had a total of ZERO POINTS for the weekend. A bit of an underachievement to say the least.

Stay tuned for this weekend's home stand as the Storm hosts division rivals Summerland Sting on Friday and perennial league powerhouse, the Fernie Ghostriders on Saturday.

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What are your comments on the past weekend games?
(click comments below - your views and opinions are welcome - keep it civil - thanx... DaveO)