Glacier Kings Hold Year-End Awards Banquet

After the best regular season in recent memory, the Comox Valley Glacier Kings lost in 7 games to the Oceanside Generals in a thrilling series. Oceanside won the seventh game 3-1 to officially end the GKings potential playoff run. It was a series that certainly could have gone either way but Ashton Sadauskas ended up being the difference as the Glacier Kings had trouble solving him in the last 2 games of the series.

There were quite a few Glacier King fans that made the trek to Parksville in Game 7 as this squad made the whole Valley proud this season.

Well all good things must come to an end. Exit interviews were conducted and on Thursday night, the Glacier Kings held their annual End of the Year Awards Banquet. The ownership held it in the Mezzanine area between Arenas 1 and 2. There was pizza, pop, veggies, dessert and of course awards and speeches.

It came to no one’s surprise that Caileb Berge won the Top Scorer Award as he tied a Glacier Kings modern-day record with 46 goals. That also led the VIJHL in goals. He led the team in points with 89 which was also good for 4th overall in VIJHL scoring. Here is a list of the other Award Winners.

MVP – Caileb Berge

Top Defenceman – Jeremy Dewar

Top Goaltender – Ryder Lally

Rookie of the Year – Logan Furlong

The rest of the winners included:

Leadership Award – Jeremy Dewar
Warrior – Jean-Michael Gilbert
Unsung Hero – Matthew Teasdale
Iron Man Award – Jory Swanson
Hard Hat Award – Logan Kurki
Academic Award – Aodhan Hildebrandt
Most Improved Player – Joe Weber
Most Sportsmanlike Player – Eric Van Loon

After it was all over, the team got together for another celebration. I ended up at the casino with some volunteers, coaching staff and owners.

Public Address Announcer Dave Dueck and I shared a few bevereges. The 3 owners stopped by for drinks, Randy Webb who joined the team behind the bench mid-season met up with us as did anthem singer Shannon Skender. My gosh there were a lot of laughs and Shannon even ended up winning money during the celebration after plugging in just $20.

So what do the Glacier Kings look like for next season. Head coach/GM Mike Nesbitt believes they will be good again despite the loss of stars Caileb Berge and Logan Kurki. He believes that between the recruiting he is doing and the core group of players coming back, this team will compete for a title next season. Assuming they are coming back, forwards like Logan Furlong, Joe Weber, Matthew Teasdale, Austin Montgomery-Parsons and Ty Moore will be leading the way. On the back end, Jeremy Dewar, Jean-Michael Gilbert and Conor Vanden Heuvel, Parker Jorginson, Tynan Klein-Beekman and expect Henry Toomer to make the team from the North Island Silvertips. In net, Ryder Lally will be back. Of course all thos players I listed won’t all be back, there will some that catch on with a Junior ‘A’ team and there is a limit to how any 20 year olds a team can have. With that being said, expect Comox to battle, not just for a playoff spot next season, but to make a run in the playoffs.

I just wanted to leave you with one picture from Parksville that summed up the heart & soul of this whole team, the disappointment of the Game 7 loss, how much these guys cared, how much these guys didn’t want to go home. About 25 minutes after the game was over and everyone had gone back to their dressing rooms and the arena was empty, Joe Weber, just below my broadcast location, summed up how much these guys really gave a damn this year and left it all out on the ice for each other. He stood there for what seemed like 30 minutes. Even coach Mike Nesbitt came out after a while to console him. I already can’t wait for next year.

Have a great summer everyone, don’t forget to spring your clocks forwards before bed tonight (if applicable) and remember, “It’s always a great day for hockey.”

Darryl Skender

Glacier Kings Win Game 5

The Comox Valley Glacier Kings scored early and never relinquished their lead as they downed the Oceanside Generals 5-2 on Wednesday night. The win gives the Glacier Kings a 3-2 series lead with a chance to advance to the VIJHL semi-finals with a win on Saturday.

Head coach Mike Nesbitt told me before the game that he was planning on splitting up Caileb Berge and Logan Kurki to spread out the offence and it worked as both players still ended up scoring a goal. In fact, Kurki ended up with a 3 point night. Since there are no real records to prove it, I’d like to go out on a limb and say that Logan Kurki’s goal could be a Glacier Kings record for fastest goal at the start of a playoff game. It took just 13 seconds after the opening faceoff. Greyson Weme, who has been great in every game, had his pass picked off by Logan Furlong at the faceoff dot. Furlong quickly gave a backhand pass to Kurki who one-timed the puck beating Ashton Sadauskas on the short side.

Just past the midway point of the first period, that line was at it again. Logan Furlong won the faceoff back to Tynan Klein-Beekman who took the puck in deep, then around the net and hit Jeremy Dewar who was streaking in from the blue line and deflected the puck past the goaltender. That goal was Dewar’s 3rd of the playoffs.

Comox would take a 3-0 lead late in the opening frame just after their power play expired. Jory Swanson fed the puck down low to Caileb Berge who passed back to the line to Conor Vanden Heuval. He passed back to Berge at the dot. Caileb saw Greyson Weme coming out of the penalty box and rushing back into the play so instead of passing it back, he turned towards the slot and fired a wrist shot past Sadauskas.

Trey Anderson would take a penalty less than a minute later and Oceanside’s power play would make Comox pay. Jacob Thomas would beat Ryder Lally with just over a minute left to make the score 3-1 heading into the first intermission.

There was no scoring in the second period but three more goals were scored in the third. It all started when Logan Kurki carried the puck over the blue line and took it around the net, then centred to Jeremy Dewar for his second goal of the night. It looked very similar to his first goal. The Generals would make a game of it when Evan Dyce scored on the power play to make it 4-2.

The game would finally be put away late when when Aodhan Hildebrandt buried an empty netter from centre ice. That gave the Glacier Kings a 5-2 victory and a 3-2 series lead heading home.

Oceanside lost more than just the hockey game on Wednesday night. Jacob Thomas and Brady O’Brien got injured and didn’t return to the game. Both those players have been instrumental in this series. Thomas plays on the top line with Carter Johnson and Greyson Weme. O’Brien had been given the difficult task of playing against the Glacier Kings top line. After Thomas came out of the game, defenceman Brendan Carlson was moved up onto the top forward line. Carlson is a creative offensive player and made the move seamlessly.

Logan Kurki took over the scoring lead in the VIJHL playoffs with his goal and two assists. He was on the ice for 4 of the 5 Glacier Kings goals. Teammate Caileb Berge is tied for 2nd just one point behind. Berge still leads all players in goals with 8.

Game 6 is now a due or die game for the Oceanside Generals as they need a victory to force a Game 7 back in Parksville Sunday. Game time for Saturday’s contest is 7:30 at the Comox Valley Sports Centre. It was a big crowd there for the double-overtime game on Tuesday night. I would expect the same this time around. Oceanside announced the paid attendance of 380.

One of the concerns for Comox is Oceanside’s power play which is clicking on all cylinders. They scored 2 more goals with the man advantage Wednesday and are now 7 for 19 (36.8%) in the series which is the best in the VIJHL. Comox Valley has to stay out of the penalty box. On the other side, the Generals only dressed 10 forwards for the game and lost 2 more during the game. They are going to have to reach deep into their depth if those guys don’t come back. Sean Brendeland is available to return from suspension. Matthew Teasdale of Comox will have one more game to serve on his 5 game suspension. Austin Montogmery-Parsons is questionable. The league announced Thursday that Brett Arnet will be available for Saturday’s match.

That’s it for today, have a great week and see you at the rink on Saturday.

Darryl Skender

Gens Tie Series At 2 With Double OT Win

The Oceanside Generals edged the Comox Valley Glacier Kings 3-2 in double overtime on Tuesday to tie their best of 7 playoff series at two games apiece. For the third time in four games, Oceanside scored the opening goal. Carter Johnson scored his 4th of the playoffs when he poked in his own rebound just 30 seconds into the contest. That’s the way the first period would end.

Brady O’Brien would make it 2-0 skating down the left side all the way to the face dot and wristed it past Ryder Lally. Comox Valley would take just 1:03 to answer that goal. It was a set play with the face off to the right of Ashton Sadauskas. As the puck was being dropped, Caileb Berge tipped the puck ahead of himself and immediately fed it in front of the net to the driving Logan Kurki who tucked it into the open side. There would be no more scoring in the second period.

The third period provided a lot of chances and a lot of great goaltending saves but just one goal. Jory Swanson shot the puck in, Logan Kurki was the first man to get to it behind the Oceanside net. He skated it back to the blue line, gave a clever back-pass down the boards to Swanson. Swanson passed into the slot to Caileb Berge who had his back to the net. Berge took a turn-around wrist shot and beat Saudauskas up high to tie the game.

It would take two overtimes but Brady O’Brien would win it just 1:07 in. Comox hurt themselves when they iced the puck. Berge would win the faceoff but but the Glacier Kings defenceman would lose an edge in the corner. Evan Dyce picked up the loose puck and got it to the front of the net. Brayden Ross took a shot that Lally stopped but inside a pile of bodies in front of the net, Brady O’Brien somehow poked the puck into the goal.

The line of O’Brien, Ross and Dyce were up against the Berge, Kurki and Swanson line a lot during the game and did a pretty good job including the game winner. The story of the game however was the goaltending of Ashton Saudaskas. He absolutely robbed the Glacier Kings at times in the game. A couple that immediately come to mind was earlier in the game when Swanson fed Berge across the slot and Caileb had a huge portion of the net to shoot in to. Sadauskas somehow, looking like gumby, shot his left pad over to the other side of his net in time to keep the puck out just before it crossed the line. Then in the third period as he was falling forward onto the ice, he threw his glove hand up over his head to stop what looked like another sure goal off Jory Swanson. He ended up withstanding a Glacier Kings 5 on 3 situation late in the second period and a 5 on 4 situation in the last two minutes of the third. People were questioning if he should have started Game 4 after allowing 12 goals (13th was an empty net) in the past 2 games but Dan Lemmon knew something we didn’t.

This was by far the tamest game of the four played so far. Both squad’s top lines looked good again on Tuesday night. It did get physical at times but for the most part the two sides played terrific hockey and the fans definitely got their money’s worth. To me, it looked like the biggest crowd of the season.

Because of the Oceanside win, there will be a Game 6 back in Courtenay. I spoke with Glacier Kings owner Marsha Webb after the game saying at least you get another home game now. She replied that she would take a win over the extra home game anyday. I think we can all say that whether you’re a Comox fan or an Oceanside fan.

The Generals have now taken back home-ice advantage in the series. Game 5 is tonight (Wednesday) in Parksville. The Gens will still be without the services of Nolan Wyatt (susp), Sean Brendeland (susp), Brett Arnet (susp) and Chase Heslop (inj). Comox won’t have the services of Matthew Teasdale (susp) and Austin Montgomery-Parsons (inj). The pre-game show on Compass Radio starts at 6:45 and I’ll have the play by play at 7:00. You can listen on your smart phone or tablet by going to http://www.cvcommunityradio.ca.

That’s it for today, see you at the rink.

Darryl Skender