Glacier Kings Enter Last Month Of Season

The Comox Valley Glacier Kings are entering the final month of their 2018-19 season with a lot of talk about next season already. That’s because the team knows they won’t be participating in this year’s playoffs. But there are still 8 games left in the regular season and despite the fact that all 19 carded players are eligible to return and the majority will probably be given a chance to tryout, the club could look a lot different depending on how the scouting goes. I would expect that the coaching staff has already pre-determined which 5 or 6 players will be making the team next season but there is a lot of room for change. Every current player needs to be working hard until the end to leave a good impression with the coaching staff heading into the in the off-season when a lot of the scouting will take place. And this year’s recruitment is expected to go much better than last year.

I spoke with head coach Jordan Kamprath after practice this week. He talk about February.

“Last month of the season obviously, it’s going to be a struggle for a lot of these guys to stay focused and move forward. They’re still going hard in the gym, they’re still going hard on the ice. Everyone is looking forward to the off-season to see what our team comes with next season. There’s a lot of camps coming up in the next little while and there’s a lot of these kids being watched by a lot of scouts too. Everyone needs to keep focused and being looking upwards.”

The little dust up at the end of Saturday’s game was actually refreshing to see and I mentioned it on my broadcast. I know there’s a lot of frustration on this team with all the losses but that doesn’t mean they don’t stick together like a family. Their attitude and heart still seem to be in the right place. Kamprath talked about the incident against Nanaimo in the third period.

“It’s definitely nice to see the intensity and to see the players stand up for one another. Brendan (Almer) ended up getting into a fight. As soon as something happened in the skirmish you could see their entire line immediately go there, as soon as that happened our team stuck up for each other. It’s a group of good friends and more like brothers. I would have liked to see that intensity earlier in the game.”

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a fan of chippy, dirty hockey. I am a fan of high intensity, hard hitting and 2 willing players going toe to toe. That’s what Brendan Almer and Billy Walters did and good on both of them. I’m not a fan of the game misconduct rule after a fight but I do support the suspension for a game misconduct in the final 10 minutes. We don’t need dirty stuff happening late because the game is out of hand.

One of the big problems Saturday was the inability for the Glacier Kings to get the puck out of their own end when they had possession of it. That leads to more offensive zone time for the other team as well as more shots towards goal. The defence needs to react quicker and the forwards need to help out more. Jordan has had some good practices this week and talked about what they were focusing on.

“Defensive zone obviously has been a struggle for us. Trying to get those shots down, block shots, trying to help out the goalies as much as possible. If we can get those pucks out the first time every time then the shot count will obviously go down.“

Saturday’s game wasn’t the last game Kamper was behind the bench for. He was also asked to help out coaching the Prospects game. It was enjoyable as you would expect with the South beating the North 6-2. It was also a little more intense than the all-star game a week earlier. The rookie head coach talked about being there.

“It was a lot of fun. A team like that with so much skill and a lot of knowledge behind the bench listening to Dan (Lemmon) back there. It’s nice to be around the coaches in a not very competitive setting and just kind of chat and hang out with everyone. When you’re there for a game you might have a word with one another, maybe some more than others but for the most part it’s pretty competitive and you don’t want to say too much about what your team is doing. Talking about players, talking about friends and family, not necessarily anything to do about hockey but it was definitely a lot of fun.”

The Kerry Park Islanders head to town on Saturday for a date with the GKings. The Islanders currently sit in a tie for second place in the South with the Saanich Braves. The Islanders feature 4 players that average over a point per game including Evan Easton who is tied for the VIJHL scoring lead. Easton has lit up Comox in their previous 2 meetings with 6 goals and 2 assists including a 4-goal performance at the Sports Centre back on December 15th. Brendan Almer is not available for the game as he is serving a one-game suspension.

Darryl Skender

Strong 3rd Period By Bucs Top Line Secures Victory Over Glacier Kings

The line of Riley Gannon, Billy Walters and Brendan Rogers were held scoreless through two periods but the trio erupted for 9 points (three points each) in the third in Nanaimo’s 6-2 victory over the Comox Valley Glacier Kings on Saturday. Walters always seems to play big against Comox and this was no different as he ended the game with 3 assists and a fight, all in the final period. Dawson Heathcote also had a 3 point night (1G 2A). On the other side, the Glacier Kings first marker was a highlight reel goal by Damian Rennie. It started in the defensive zone when Grady Robertson intercepted a pass at the top of his own circle, wasted no time feeding Rennie on the fly at the Comox blue line and Damian used his speed and skill after that going around the defenceman and beating goaltender Austin Dendl. That actually made the score 2-1 late in the second period. The home team’s other goal came late in the third period when Brendan Almer took a cross ice pass in his own zone, head-manned the puck to Rick Takeda who immediately passed it to Jacob Murray at the Buc line. Murray fired a blistering wrist shot past Dendl’s glove to end the scoring at 6-2. One of the real stories of the game was Mathias Smith. He made 54 saves in the loss. The final shots were 60-22. The game got chippy at the end with 10 players being sent to the dressing room with penalties including Walters and Almer for their fight with 2:56 remaining in the match. Both of those players have been suspended for their next game. Buccaneers coach Curtis Toneff was also tossed from the contest after the melee.

The Glacier Kings don’t play again until Saturday when Kerry Park comes in for their second and final visit. Nanaimo will be busy this week. They play host to Campbell River Tuesday and Oceanside Thursday before travelling to Campbell River Friday. The Bucs and GKings close out the regular season February 23rd at the Sports Centre.

Other observations:

• It was the first time this season we saw the 2-referee system at the Sports Centre.
• After just 4 minor penalties in the first 40 minutes, there were 110 minutes of penalties in the 3rd.
• Despite being outplayed, the score was just 2-1 with a little under three minutes left in the second period.
• This was the second time this season Comox has given up 60 shots. The other time was September 22nd against Campbell River.
• There was an incident late in the second period where there was incidental, light contact when Grady Robertson was bumped into Austin Dendl behind the net. Dendl went down on the play and as the puck came back to the point, the Glacier Kings defenceman shot it into the empty net. The goal was disallowed and Robertson was given a penalty. After looking at the replay, head coach Jordan Kamprath was not happy with the call. That would have made the score 3-2 with 42 seconds left in the middle frame. He spoke with one of the referee’s about it at the start of the third period.

• The Glacier Kings have killed off 14 straight shorthanded situations and 17 of their last 18 overall.
• Billy Walters and Riley Gannon are now 3rd and 4th in the VIJHL scoring race.
• Comox had all 19 carded players dressed for the game again. They only had to bring up Lochlan Willis to make it a 20-player roster. With Almer suspended for next game, they may have to bring up a couple guys to get to the full compliment of players allowed.

That’s it for tonight. I’ll do a practice update for this week on my next post. See you Saturday night.

Darryl Skender

All-Star Game Full Of Laughs And Fun

Team South (Black) vs. Team North (White)

I’ll be honest with you, I’m not usually a fan of all-star games. I have a hard time sitting down and watching the entire NHL all-star game. They’ve tried many times to change the rules to gain fan interest. The general consensus from most people is the Skills Competition is the favorite. The 2019 VIJHL all-star game was filled with fast skating, good goaltending, no hitting and so many laughs. Sounds like an NHL all-star game but for some reason, it was so much fun. I guess the NHL game is predictable and is mostly the same players every year. Maybe this is different because most of these VIJHL kids have never been a part of anything like this in their entire lives. I had no idea what to expect. It was better than I ever imagined. Everyone left happy and nobody seemed to have care who won.

Referee Brad Ford did an amazing job of officiating the game. The linesmen had a plan at the start… no icings. There were probably a dozen cases of clear cut icing which were all waved off. In fact I saw once when the referee and linesman smiled at each other after one of the infractions were waved off. Ford called 2 penalty shots (one to each team) which the crowd loved but my favorite call of the night came when Team South forward Mateo Albinati (who scored 2 goals) accidentally collided with the veteran ref knocking him over. Without hesitation, Ford got back up and immediately put his arm in the air for a penalty (interference) which had everyone laughing including Mark Berry and myself. Mark did a terrific job doing the play by play considering the circumstances. It was a broadcasters worst fear. We got line ups that weren’t the same as the information we were originally given, none of the players had numbers on their sleeves and there were not any name bars on their backs. I didn’t add much to the broadcast as I was in awe watching what was happening away from the puck. While doing play by play, the broadcaster has to keep his eyes on the puck and who has it. Being the color analyst, it was a treat to see everything else going on. I saw both coaching staffs laughing after bad giveaways by their own team, I saw 2 players hanging out at the opposing blue line while short-handed and the puck was in their own zone and I saw just one body check. It happened in the first period and the player got a penalty for it lol. There weren’t anymore after that. There was also a shot that went off the upper bar inside the net that came straight back out that was originally called no-goal but later overturned after another minute or two of play. The public address announcer said it was confirmed a goal after video replay. I’m not so sure there was video replay but who really knows. It doesn’t matter because they got the call right. Another incident happened where the South scored and the timekeeper put the goal on the North side to make the game a little closer (it was eventually corrected). The fans at the Rod Brind’Amour Arena were terrific. They cheered when both teams scored and did a great job singing the national anthem at the start of the game.

Damian Rennie, Mathias Smith, Jordan Neufeld

The Glacier Kings players all played well. I was a bit disappointed that Jordan Neufeld and Damian Rennie didn’t get to play on the same line but neither player looked out of place and even had scoring chances. Rookie goaltender Mathias Smith was terrific as he played all 20 minutes in the second period. He only allowed one goal on 11 shots. Not bad considering there were 17 goals in the game. After the game they all told me that it was an honor to play with all these skilled players, that they had fun and how competitive it was. I appreciate them coming out of the dressing room after the game was over for my photo op.

Kudos have to go to Kyle Ireland. He did a terrific job keeping fans up to date via twitter (especially when HockeyTV had technical issues), helping us in the booth and getting interviews. He’s such a professional. Also a big thanks to the crew in the booth beside us that helped us out when we had questions.

Oh and by the way in case anyone cares, the final score was Team South 10 Team North 7. I hope the league decides to play an all-star game every year instead of just naming players to the squads.

Darryl Skender

 

Bittersweet Weekend For 3 Glacier Kings

It was a bitter sweet weekend for Damian Rennie, Jordan Neufeld and Mathias Smith. On Saturday, the Campbell River Storm came into town and walked away with an 8-0 victory. What can you say about Pearce Messer? He was acquired at the deadline and played in his second game for the Storm and scored twice to lead the way. He had 37 points in 31 games for Campbell River last season. He has also spent parts of the past 2 seasons with the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the BCHL. Aaron de Kok got his 4th shutout of the season. At the time of this post, the shots on the VIJHL website show 39-17 but scrolling down, de Kok only got credit for 16 saves. Not sure who got credit for the 17th save lol. Goaltender Mathias Smith came in relief of starter Joben Douce midway through the 3rd period and stopped all 5 shots he faced. Other goal scorers for Campbell River were Tyler Chyzowski, Josh Pederson, Damon Kramer, Keenan Toal, Davis Frank and Darren Hards. The reason I said it was a bittersweet weekend for Rennie, Neufeld and Smith was because they got to play in the all-star game on Sunday and all played well and had fun. I’ll talk about the all-star game in my next post.

The Glacier Kings loss on Saturday officially eliminated the team from the playoffs. They can no longer catch the 8th place Peninsula Panthers who are currently 31 points ahead. Up next for Comox Valley are the Oceanside Generals on Friday. The Gens have won 5 of the 6 meetings this season. The next home game is Saturday when the Nanaimo Buccaneers are here. The Bucs have fallen 23 points behind first place Campbell River but do have 5 games in hand. The Storm are at home to Saanich on Friday.

Other observations:

• Brady Townsend was the acting head coach on Saturday as Jordan Kamprath was down in Victoria on a hockey related trip.
• The pregame skate was interesting. Many of the Storm players were out with just shin pads and no socks. Apparently the socks were left back in Campbell River. Eventually someone went back to get them because they did end up having them during the game. Our online scorer Iain Gillard apparently lent his skates to one of the Campbell River players who didn’t have his skates with him.
• With all teams, the same players usually try to be the last guys off the ice after the pregame skate. The rule is everyone must be off the ice by the time the buzzer sounds or there will be a Delay of Game penalty issued to start the first period. Noah Goyer and Cole Slaney waited until the final second to step off the ice.
• It happened again. When the players came onto the ice just before the first period, they let newcomer Tynan Klein-Beekman go out first. He did a lap around his own end while all his teammates stayed off the ice as a joke.
• The second period marked the 6th time this year that Comox has allowed 5 goals in a period.
• Ex-Glacier Kings coach Jordan Butcher was one of the linesmen for the game and he did a great job once again.
• Since beating Campbell River 6-3 back on December 14th, the Storm have outscored the Glacier Kings 19-2 in their past three meetings.
• Shaun Ropcean was given the Game Star for the GKings Saturday. Since there wasn’t much in the way of offence, he was given the honor for a couple of huge hits defensively. Good for him as Shaun is a terrific guy off the ice.
• Comox Valley has given up 25 goals in their past three games (9,8,8). It is also the 5th time they have been shutout.
• On the bright side they held Campbell River’s power play, which is the best in the league, scoreless on 3 chances. In fact they have only given up one goal in the last 10 opponents power play opportunities.

That’s it for today. I’ll do a post on the all-star game tonight or tomorrow.

Darryl Skender

Glacier Kings Prepare For Campbell River

The Comox Valley Glacier Kings will look to break their 7 game losing streak when they host the Campbell River Storm on Saturday. The Glacier Kings have beat the league leading Storm twice so far this season (Oct. 27th 4-3 in OT & Dec. 14th 6-3) but have lost the past two match ups against their rivals.

The tempo of the past couple practices have been pretty impressive. All 4 coaches were busy as multiple drills were happening on both ends of the ice with all the players skating hard. It was fun watching head coach Jordan Kamprath participate in some of the drills as well. He scored a couple goals bar-down that had the players cheering and banging their sticks. You could see him racing back to centre ice with a grin on his face. There was also a lot of fun jabbing and chirping going back and forth which was terrific to see with a team with just 5 wins (4 regulation, 1 OT) all season. It has been the coach staying positive, keeping the players engaged and making sure they have fun that keeps the dressing room from getting cancerous which can happen during a dismal season. He talked about practice.

“It was a good hard practice, doing a lot of d-zone stuff, working on a lot of personal skills for the defence and on the forward side as well. At the end we had a little fun with forwards against the defence drills. We got some one on one’s, two on one’s. It was a good hard practice and I expect tomorrow’s to be the same.”

Campbell River currently has a 7 point lead over the Victoria Cougars for first overall in the VIJHL. Both team’s have 11 games left in the regular season. Kamprath knows beating them again will be tough.

“They’re a very skilled team. They’re the type of team that if you give them time and space they’re going to walk all over you so preparing for them we’re going to try and take that time and space away as much as possible and get after them. We’ve beat them in the past because we went after them hard and we went after their defence and forced them to make a decision without them having time to have a thought about it. Also shooting the puck and getting shots on net so that’s what we’ve been working on quite a bit.”

That will be the only game this week for 16 of the 19 carded Glacier Kings. The other 3 will play the very next day in Campbell River in the all-star game. Damian Rennie, Jordan Neufeld and Mathias Smith will all participate on Sunday then again one week later in the Prospects game. Kamper likes the perseverance of the trio.

“I think all 3 guys deserve it more than anyone else. They were working hard and had a tough season last year with Damian and Jordan and then with Matty this year. They’ve been working through the adversity and are a huge part of turning this organization around as well.”

Game time on Saturday is at 7:30. The pre-game show on HockeyTV will start at 7:15 with Jordan Kamprath and Storm coach Cam Basarab. I’ll be speaking with goaltender Matty Smith during the first intermission about his all-star selection.

It’s always a big crowd when Campbell River is here. A lot of Storm fans make the 45 minute trek down island on Highway 19 to Courtenay. We should see another big turnout on Saturday. Hope to see you at the rink.

Darryl Skender