What kind of storm wreaks devastation of the sort seen Saturday night at Rod Brind’Amour Arena?
The Campbell River Storm.
After gathering force Thursday by handing the Nanaimo Buccaneers their first loss of the year, the Storm blew out the Comox Valley Glacier Kings 7-0 on Friday.
It was a tough loss for the third-place Yetis, who went into the weekend just one point back of the second-place Storm in the North Division. Campbell River now sits five points up on Comox Valley, who also lost 6-2 to the Saanich Braves at home Saturday.
To say Friday’s Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League tilt in The River City was lopsided would be an understatement. The Storm out-shot the Glacier Kings 65-31, with Courtenay’s Jack Surgenor picking up the shutout and first-star honours and Michael Hails taking the loss.
Second star James Severs and Gage Golpron netted two goals each to pace the C.R. scoring as the Storm led 2-0 after one period and 4-0 after two. The Storm went 4-for-8 on the power play and the Icemen were 0-for-6.
The two North Division rivals decided to do-si-do midway through the second stanza as Grant Iles of C.V. and Zack Sanderson of C.R. earned early showers after swapping knuckle sandwiches.
Glad to be clear of the Storm, the Glacier Kings returned home Saturday looking for better things against the Braves, who are in third place in the South Division.
But Saanich had other ideas. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead just four minutes into the game and out-scored the Yetis 3-0 in the second stanza en route to the 6-2 win.
The Braves out-shot the Glacier Kings 29-22 and went 1-for-7 on the power play to Comox Valley’s 1-for-4. After a relatively calm first period things heated up in the second with a series of penalties then escalated in the third with several players tossed for fighting.
Six different Braves hit the scoresheet and Jordan Werezak picked up the win. Duncan Pernal and Jonas Harvath tallied for the Yetis with Hails and Blake Pearson both seeing action between the pipes.
Comox Valley will be looking to snap a two-game losing streak Wednesday when they visit the Westshore Stingers. Then comes a weekend home-and-home with the Kerry Park Islanders; they host the Isles Friday (7:30 p.m. Sports Centre #1) then return the visit Saturday.
ICE CHIPS The Storm never trailed in upsetting the Bucs and snapping their unbeaten string at nine, and doing so right in Nanaimo … Surgenor was re-acquired by C.R. in a Sept. 19 trade with the Sicamous Eagles of the KIJHL … he first played for the Storm in his 16-year-old season before joining the Dawson Creek Rage of the NAHL …
