The Campbell River Storm headed into the VIJHL All-Star weekend with authority after a dominating performance over the Glacier Kings down in the Comox Valley on Friday night.
The Storm had struggled a bit against the Glacier Kings so far this season, being the recipient of half the team’s total victories on the year, and on Friday night, it wasn’t clear that wouldn’t be the case again, as it took most of the first period for the Storm to really get their feet under them.
But when Pearce Messer opened the scoring for the Storm with six minutes remaining in the first, then notched his second of the night six minutes into the second, the home team started to show why they are well in the lead league.
Davis Frank followed Messer’s pair of goals by adding a third for the Storm less than a minute later. Darren Hards added another before the half-way mark of the period to put the home team up by four.
Josh Pederson made it 5-0 with under a minute remaining in the second and Damon Harder added a sixth to the board with just five seconds left on the clock before the second intermission.
What was even more impressive than the Storm’s offensive push in to this point in the game was their defence. The Storm only allowed two shots to get through on goaltender Aaron de Kok in the second, holding the visitors to single-digit shots on the board through 40 minutes of play.
The Storm kept up the pressure in the third period, as well. Tyler Chyzowski made the score 7-0 with a short-handed marker 5:41 into the period and Keenan Toal added an eighth goal to the board just after the midway point of the period, chasing Comox Valley goaltender Jobe Douce from the net to be replaced by rookie Matthias Smith.
Smith would fare better between the pipes than his teammate, turning away the rest of the Storm’s shots on the night, but the damage was already done.
The shutout adds to de Kok’s league-leading total of four and the win puts him firmly in the lead in that category, as well. His 19 wins is four better than second-place Cam Stevenson with the Victoria Cougars. De Kok also sits in third place league-wide in Save Percentage (.932) and fourth place in Goals Against Average (1.97).
Next up for the Storm is a pair of home games this coming weekend. The Saanich Braves are in town Friday night, followed by the Oceanside Generals on Sunday.
Puck drop at the Brindy for both games is 7:30 p.m.
