It was a tough weekend for the Kamloops Storm. On Friday night they visited the last place North Okanagan Knights in Enderby and took it on the chin, losing 5-4 in regulation. With Saturday being a resting day you would think that the team would be re-charged for their Sunday matinee game at the Mac Park Centre against the dreaded Princeton Posse but such was not the case.
For the first couple of minutes of the game the Storm controlled the play but on 12 seconds into a Mitch Lutz penalty for holding, the Princeton Posse scored their first goal from Danny Hillman and the rout was on. Six minutes later, the Storm got their first power play and promptly coughed the puck up at the offensive blueline (which has been a bad habit lately) when Chase Salisbury poked the puck around Jordan Wilkins and made a nice feed to Dayton Shaw who buried his first goal of the game, a nice short-handed goal over the glove of Storm goaltender Anthony Manfredi.
Just 1:28 later, Storm forward Gary Rai got caught stickhandling as the last man back in his own zone. Ben Morgan picked his pocket and promptly put the puck over the same glove hand as the previous goal. Manfredi was livid (justifiably so) and was pulled in favour of newly signed goaltender, Alex Christiansen, who didn't fare much better. With 4:13 left in the period the Posse capitalized on another power play on a goal by Evan Stack and the score was now 4-0.
It was at this time that the Storm finally showed an ounce of pride and started to fight back. At 17:16 Gary Rai made up for his earlier blunder by finishing off a spectacular effort by Duncan Schultz to put the Storm's first goal on the board. Then, 47 seconds later on the same shift, Schultz potted one on a some good work by Bevin Ollek... the team had life and went into the intermission trailing only by 2 and on the power play to start the 2nd period.
Riding on the momentum from their flurry at the end of the 1st period, the Storm came out buzzing and managed to score their 3rd goal in a row. Brett DeFrias let a low slapper go after Tyler Jackson slid a smooth pass back to the point. The crowd was now back into the game but the euphoria wouldn't last long.
The Posse, refusing to break under the onslaught turned the period around by scoring 2 goals of their own before the end of the period and went into the 2nd intermission with a 6-3 lead.
It was Anthony Manfredi returning to the net for the 3rd period. I guess the coaching staff figured that it wasn't the goaltending costing them the game and if they were to going to make a run of it, Manfredi would be their guy.
Didn't work.
The Posse came out "storming" in the 3rd period and scored 2 goals in the first 5:o8 of the period and virtually cruised to an 8-3 shellacking of the Kamloops squad. There were a few scuffles in frustration before the game ended but the scoreboard spoke for itself. This was a humiliation and the boys knew it.
SCOREBOARD
The next and last regular season home game is next Saturday, Feb 13, against the Division leading Revelstoke Grizzlies.
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Coaching Rumours...
There were rumours flying around after the game that coach Greg Hawgood had been dismissed by team owner and GM Barry Dewar. I managed to contact Barry today (Monday) and he had a slightly different story.
Assistant coach Brent Fritz has to leave for a firefighter training course in Texas and Barry had managed to find someone competent enough to fill in and work with Hawgood. The new guy was going to be designated as a co-coach and apparently this didn't sit well with Hawgood and he felt that he was being fired. Dewar has denied that he had fired Hawgood but at the time we talked, he said that he did not know what the status of his coach would be by the end of the day.
We will keep you posted.
With the playoffs on the horizon and the Keystone Cup later in April, it's scary to think that this team, the way that they are playing now, will be anything more than pylons for the provincial champions of the 5 most western provinces who will be here to make their claim on the championship. We all hope that someone or something can change things for the better.
For the first couple of minutes of the game the Storm controlled the play but on 12 seconds into a Mitch Lutz penalty for holding, the Princeton Posse scored their first goal from Danny Hillman and the rout was on. Six minutes later, the Storm got their first power play and promptly coughed the puck up at the offensive blueline (which has been a bad habit lately) when Chase Salisbury poked the puck around Jordan Wilkins and made a nice feed to Dayton Shaw who buried his first goal of the game, a nice short-handed goal over the glove of Storm goaltender Anthony Manfredi.
Just 1:28 later, Storm forward Gary Rai got caught stickhandling as the last man back in his own zone. Ben Morgan picked his pocket and promptly put the puck over the same glove hand as the previous goal. Manfredi was livid (justifiably so) and was pulled in favour of newly signed goaltender, Alex Christiansen, who didn't fare much better. With 4:13 left in the period the Posse capitalized on another power play on a goal by Evan Stack and the score was now 4-0.
It was at this time that the Storm finally showed an ounce of pride and started to fight back. At 17:16 Gary Rai made up for his earlier blunder by finishing off a spectacular effort by Duncan Schultz to put the Storm's first goal on the board. Then, 47 seconds later on the same shift, Schultz potted one on a some good work by Bevin Ollek... the team had life and went into the intermission trailing only by 2 and on the power play to start the 2nd period.
Riding on the momentum from their flurry at the end of the 1st period, the Storm came out buzzing and managed to score their 3rd goal in a row. Brett DeFrias let a low slapper go after Tyler Jackson slid a smooth pass back to the point. The crowd was now back into the game but the euphoria wouldn't last long.
The Posse, refusing to break under the onslaught turned the period around by scoring 2 goals of their own before the end of the period and went into the 2nd intermission with a 6-3 lead.
It was Anthony Manfredi returning to the net for the 3rd period. I guess the coaching staff figured that it wasn't the goaltending costing them the game and if they were to going to make a run of it, Manfredi would be their guy.
Didn't work.
The Posse came out "storming" in the 3rd period and scored 2 goals in the first 5:o8 of the period and virtually cruised to an 8-3 shellacking of the Kamloops squad. There were a few scuffles in frustration before the game ended but the scoreboard spoke for itself. This was a humiliation and the boys knew it.
SCOREBOARD
The next and last regular season home game is next Saturday, Feb 13, against the Division leading Revelstoke Grizzlies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coaching Rumours...
There were rumours flying around after the game that coach Greg Hawgood had been dismissed by team owner and GM Barry Dewar. I managed to contact Barry today (Monday) and he had a slightly different story.
Assistant coach Brent Fritz has to leave for a firefighter training course in Texas and Barry had managed to find someone competent enough to fill in and work with Hawgood. The new guy was going to be designated as a co-coach and apparently this didn't sit well with Hawgood and he felt that he was being fired. Dewar has denied that he had fired Hawgood but at the time we talked, he said that he did not know what the status of his coach would be by the end of the day.
We will keep you posted.
With the playoffs on the horizon and the Keystone Cup later in April, it's scary to think that this team, the way that they are playing now, will be anything more than pylons for the provincial champions of the 5 most western provinces who will be here to make their claim on the championship. We all hope that someone or something can change things for the better.
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