Dynamiters Implode

Kamloops Storm Scores 3 in the 3rd to Win 4-1

The Kimberley Dynamiters stayed pretty close to the Kamloops Storm for 2 periods but undisciplined played had Kamloops score 2 goals on the power play in the 3rd period to ice their 5th win of the season.

Kimberley got hammered 6-0 the night before by Sicamous and came in with the intention of making amends. In the opening 2 minutes Anthony Manfredi was forced to make a number of early saves, including 2 tricky shots that came off the back boards. Tory Caldwell played solid between the pipes at the other end and the period ended in a 0-0 tie.

The stalemate lasted until 9:41 of the 2nd period when Justin Fulton, who just stepped out of the penalty box, picked up a loose puck and feed Cody Jules who showed a nice touch and quick hands while he whistled the puck over the shoulder of Caldwell and put the Storm up 1-0.
Kimberley came right back after killing their own penalty and it was Taylor McDowell deflecting a Logan Gutfriend point shot past a screened Anthony Manfredi.

Jason Alessio scored what ended up being the winner on the power-play almost 7 minutes into the 3rd and Bevin Ollek picked up a re-bound during another power play late in the period. Ollek's 6'5" frame is tough to move in front of the net when he takes a notion to set up his office there. Tyler Jackson assisted on both power play goals.

Bevin Ollek notched his second on an empty netter in the last minute. Ollek showed good hustle and deft hands beating a defender to a cleared puck and slipping a deep angle back hand just inside the post.

3rd Star - Cody Jules
2nd Star - Tory Caldwell
1st Star - Anthony Manfredi

You can catch the BoxScore here.

Notes:

- I thought the defense played much better in this game than the last couple that we witnessed. Both Logan Hawgood and BrettDefrias saw a lot more ice time after captain Mike McCance got a game misconduct for a hit from behind early in the first period. Spencer Donaldson, who has been playing forward lately, dropped back on defense this night and played very well. Ryan Skinner is coming along nicely too. The only one that had a so-so game was 20 yr old Dylan Becker who seemed to be a little lethargic.
- Bevin Ollek had 2 goals but I'm sure he could have had more or helped on more if he parked his large frame in the goaltenders face more often. That's how he scored his first goal of the evening. He did show good personal control, drawing a penalty in the 3rd period, turning a cheek to a Liam Jeffries roughing call in the 3rd.
- it's been great having Gary Donaldson doing color in the broadcast booth during the game. We hope that it has added to your entertainment value. Gary should be around all year and we hope he joins us often.

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Mann to Man

Ouch! Sting Get Stung - Storm Wins 8-2

It took all of 12 minutes for Darren Mann to show his coaches and his fans that he is all growed up now. Mann, on a lightening fast line with Kamloops Blazer product Ryan Hanes and Californian speedster, Shawn Menton left the opposition Summerland Sting swarmed and stung early.

Mann was everywhere, scoring 3 goals in 3 distinct manners. First, he took advantage of a juicy rebound on a howitzer by Hanes. His second goal was a converted opportunity on a loose puck. And his third goal was the result of constant pressure and a pretty passing play between the speedy linemates.

If it weren't for poor positioning by the referee, it could have been 4 goals in the first period, but the goal was disallowed as the official had lost site of the puck.

Mann played for the Storm 2 years ago when he stuck with the team as a 17 year old tenacious, hard checking speedster. He has returned with all the qualities he possessed back then but with a little more size and lot more smarts. The Storm, who haven't shown a lot of offensive savvy so far this season have now found an important piece of the puzzle.

Last night's game was played without the benefit of 2 other speedsters, short-handed specialist Brandon Long (separated shoulder) and Travis Cech (suspension-3 games). With those 2 guys in the lineup Kamloops could be the team to beat this year.

And this was only the first half of the game.

The second period saw much of the same pressure as the first when Jose Reyes, David Gore and Mick Ludvig caught fire. Having Mann, Menton and Hanes attracting a lot of the attention, tihis was the perfect catalyst for a wake up call for this line as they struck for 2 more quick goals in the first half of the 2nd period.

In the middle of the second period, up 6-0, the Storm relaxed a little and found themselves in the penalty box. Summerland, needing to dig deep, turned up the pressure and fired 2 goals of their own, only 1 min-9 seconds apart and carried the play for the rest of the period.

Then Kamloops put it away in the 3rd, again, 2 goals by the Reyes line. David Gore had 2 goals (one in the second period and one in the 3rd, Ludvig one goals and Reyes finished with 1 goal and 3 assists, the line's biggest offensive output of the year.

Daniel Medland Marchen also scored in the first period. Marchen has a very solid game, stepping up into the offensive play, driving the net and hustling back to defend. He is looking more comfortable each time out and will be a steadying force on the blueline.

With the great performances on the evening it's almost a tragedy that we haven't mentioned the Kamloops starting goaltender last night, Christian Pedersen. The 18 year old native from Calgary got his first start of the season and did not disappoint. He moved well and was able to see most of the pucks coming his way. We look forward to seeing him more although the 3 goaltender situation in Kamloops is likely to get broken up shortly with someone being traded. Count on Tory Caldwell finding another home in the future as he is ready to step up into a "starters role".

The love extends to David McIvor and the Fernie Ghostriders tonight at the Mac Island Sports Centre. Fernie took it on the chin, losing 3-2 to a solid Chase Chiefs team in Chase last night. Fernie, still a force in the league will face a team as talented as they were the last 2 years when they won the league championship, disposing of the Storm both times in the final.

Game time tonight - 7pm

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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)

Kamloops Storm Grounds Golden Rockets

Jake Young Scores Hatrick in Lopsided Win!

After a sloppy and boring first period where both teams and the crowd needed a wake-up call, the Kamloops Storm scored 5 goals in the 2nd period of last night's game to bury the Golden Rockets.

The first period may have been the sloppiest period of hockey we have seen all season with both teams showing very little in continuity, crispness and accuracy. One of the people in the crowd observed that Kamloops completed two passes in a row only twice in the opening frame. Never the less, the game was tied 2-2 going into the 2nd.
Cody Cringan scored both Golden goals in the first period, the first goal coming at only 0:55 sec of the period. The puck was shot in along the glass when the puck caremed off a glass support to the crease where Kamloops goaltender, Tory Caldwell attempted to cover up the puck. Apparently, the puck was still visible and a sharp and persistent Cringan poked at it until it slipped quietly into the net.
A few minutes later, with Scott Kirkam in the the box for hooking, Lundy Treneman worked his penalty killing magic by stripping the puck from a Rocket defender and went in on a 2-on-0 breakaway with... the hottest sniper in the league right now, Jassi Sangha... fed him the puck and Sangha had no problem burying the biscuit to tie the scored at one.
At 16:53 with Golden on the power play, Cringan scored his second of the period with a quick blast from the left side circle, beating Caldwell cleanly.
Golden forward Luke Rasmussen took a penalty for tripping with only 5 seconds left with the faceoff in the Golden end. This ended up being the "TSN turning point" of the evening as Sangha stepped into the circle, won the faceoff back to Cody Lockwood who fed Jamie Galbraith who let the quick shot go. Sangha, drifting back toward the net took Galbraith's shot in his body or off his stick and the puck went into the net with literally no time left on the clock to tie the score at 2.
From then on, it was all Kamloops, particularly in the 2nd period.
Jake Young started his assault on the evening on a nice feed from Jose Reyes with a laser beam over the shoulder of Rockets goaltender Edwin Weightman. A minute later, Todd Stephenson, the Australian National Team junior benefited from some hard work by David Gore and a sweet pass from Sangha to quickly put Kamloops up 4-2.
The buzz was starting.
Then it was Young getting his second of the evening at 6:28 of the 2nd period on the power play, assisted by Treneman and Lockwood.
Josh Caron scored his first goal of the season when he took advantage of some sloppy play by Golden in their own zone by driving the net and finishing off another sweet feed by Sangha at 14:35. David Gore completed the 2nd period assault by the Storm on the power play with assists from Treneman and Mike Hanes.

With the score under control Kamloops coach Ed Patterson started giving more ice time to his 3rd and 4th lines who matched up well with whatever Golden through at them and Tory Caldwell stood tall in the nets to stop some pretty good opportunities by the Rockets as they tried to make a game of it.
Young capped off his evening with his hat-trick goal at 7:55 on a 2 on 1 pass from Reyes, again a wristed laser beam over the shoulder of Weightman to make the score an unsurmountable 6 goal advantage.

Young ended up being 1st star with 3 goals and one assist.
Sangha had a 4 point game with 2 goals and 2 assists to garner 2nd star honours.
And Cody Cringan, with his 2 goals in the 1st period, captured the 3rd star position.

With the win, Kamloops ties Princeton for bottom spot in the competitive Eddy Mountain - West Division with 12 points on a 6-6 record, but only 4 points behind division leading Summerland who lost a squeaker to Revelostoke last night.

Be sure to tune in for tonight's game or make your way to the MacPark Sports Centre here in Kamloops for a showdown of last years Division finalists, the Revelstoke Grizzlies. Game time is 7pm and we will be broadcasting the game with play-by-play video streaming for your enjoyment.