SUMMERLAND, BC—The Kamloops Storm’s much maligned power play found its groove as the team won a pair of weekend games in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.
After beating the 100 Mile House Wranglers 5-4 in a shootout on Friday (Jan 19), the Storm rolled into Summerland and took down the Steam 6-1 on Saturday (Jan 20).
Kamloops scored four of their goals Saturday with the man advantage and went 4-7. This followed a 3-5 performance against the Wranglers.
On Saturday, Kamloops was led by Ryan Larsen (Kamloops, BC). He had a goal and two assists. Larsen was one of two Storm players not to have a power play goal. The other was Thomas Clarke (Telkwa, BC). Both their goals came in the third period.
Loch Stefanishyn (Pinawa, MB), Braycen Dube (Cranbrook, BC), Ty Horner (Kamloops, BC), and Kyle Sanford (Kamloops, BC) had the other Kamloops goals. Stefanishyn and Dube both had assists.
Dawson Holtizki (Kelowna, BC) faced 43 shots in goal for the Storm. Josh Muir (Calgary, AB) handled 41 pucks for the Steam. Joseph Krukowski (Airdrie, AB) was the only Summerland player to beat Holitzki, who has won his last eight starts.
The Storm improve to 25-9-0-1 for 51 points. That is good enough for third place in the Doug Birks Division. They are two points behind the second place Revelstoke Grizzlies. Kamloops and Revelstoke meet each other Tuesday night (Jan 23) at the Revelstoke Forum.
Summerland falls to 8-22-3-1, sitting in the basement of the Bill Ohlhausen Division.
Next home game for Kamloops is Friday, January 26th when they entertain the North Okanagan Knights at the Mac Isle Olympic Ice Surface. Game time is 7 PM.
