The Campbell River Storm became the first team to win 10 games in the VIJHL this season after knocking off the Kerry Park Islanders 7-3 Friday night at Rod Brind’Amour Arena.
With the victory the Storm (10-0-1) remain on top of the North Division standings with 21 points, two better than the Nanaimo Buccaneers with two games in hand.
Campbell River came out flying, blitzing Islanders’ goaltender Ty Rennie with 23 shots and building a 5-0 first period lead. Back-up Leightton Williams replaced Rennie after the the fifth goal but the Storm didn’t take their foot off the gas until the score was 7-0, early in the second. Kerry Park scored the final three goals of the contest, two on the power play. Final shots on goal favoured the locals, 56-17.
“We were thrilled with our start tonight, that was exactly what we were looking for,” said Storm head coach Lee Stone, “Giving up three goals in a row (in the second and third periods) was disappointing but that’s part of the learning process with a young team. There are some areas of our game, particularly commitment to team defense, where the consistency needs to be better. Those are things we have to go through during the course of the season and, hopefully, we learn from it and get where we need to be.”
Dane Feeney continued his torrid pace, scoring the first two goals of the game, both assisted by line mates Tyler Welsh and Colin Blake. The high-flying trio has combined for 53 points already this season. Gage Colpron also contributed a pair for the Storm, while singles went to Gavin Rauser, Michael Olson, and James Severs. The improving Campbell River power play finished 3 for 10 on the night, while Kerry Park was 2 for 5.
Stone was especially happy to see Colpron’s name on the scoresheet.
“It was nice to see Cops (Colpron) get off the schneid. He’s such a team leader for us – he wants to be the guy every night. To see him score a couple and ring another one off the bar was great to see.”
“We came out really hot tonight,” said right-winger Colpron, “maybe a little too hot because we didn’t stay focused in the second. But overall, I thought we played a pretty good game.”
The Storm tries to keep their unbeaten streak alive this weekend with a home-and-home series against the Peninsula Panthers. The two teams square off Friday night in Peninsula, and then play the rematch Sunday afternoon at Rod Brind’Amour Arena. The puck drops at 4 p.m.
