Storm “Exercise” Ghosts of the Past : Take Eagles in Seven
KAMLOOPS, BC—If you were near the McArthur Island Sports Center around 9 PM Monday night (Mar 4), and felt a cold breeze: It wasn’t the weather.
It was the rush of ghosts from the past.
Just over a year after they were eliminated by the Sicamous Eagles in the seventh game of the 2023 Kootenay International Junior Hockey League first round playoffs, the Storm turned the table on Sicamous. They sent the Eagles on their summer vacation after beating them 1-0 before over a thousand fans. Kamloops took the KIJHL Doug Birks Division semi final 4-3.
The lone goal of the game came at the 13:42 mark of the first period. Nathan Bohmer (Logan Lake, BC), whom Kamloops picked up at the trading deadline from the 100 Mile House Wranglers, scored on a power play. It was Bohmer’s third goal of the series. Jake Phillips-Watts (Quesnel, BC) and Ryan Larsen (Kamloops, BC) drew the assists.
The Storm rode the solid goaltending of Colton Phillips-Watts (Quesnel, BC) to the shutout victory. He faced 32 shots including 14 in the second period. He played the entire seven game series for Kamloops. Rookie Gabe Bergeron (Calgary, AB) had 32 pucks fired at him in goal for Sicamous. Bergeron appeared in four of the seven games: including the last two after Dylan Marshall (Saskatoon, SK) was injured.
The Storm saw the return over overage defenceman Devin Benson (Kamloops, BC) from the injury list. He saw limited ice time. Kamloops also inserted affiliate player Luca D’more (Kamloops, BC) at forward.
Kamloops now meets up with the Birks Division regular season champs: the Revelstoke Grizzlies beginning Friday (Mar 8) at the Revelstoke Forum. Game two will be Saturday (Mar 9) also in Revelstoke before the series shifts for games three and four on Monday (Mar 11) and Tuesday (Mar 12). Those home games have 7 PM PST start times.
The teams met five times during the 2023-24 KIJHL regular season, with Revelstoke winning four of the five games including both times when they played at home.
All games will be shown on a pay-per-view basis on FloHockey TV.
