photo courtesy EverythingGP

By Jeff Henson

GP STORM

Special teams a factor as Storm drop eighth straight

Nov 3, 2019 | 10:28 AM

Getting a strong effort from both sides of the special teams has been a battle at times this season for the Grande Prairie Storm.

On most nights, the power play has struggled while the penalty kill has been strong.

On Saturday night, the roles reversed.

The Storm got a power play goal and had good pressure on other opportunities. But the penalty kill gave up a pair of goals as the Bonnyville Pontiacs edged the Storm 3-2.

“We played a good game (on Friday) and at the end of that game there was not a whole lot left.” said Head Coach Matt Keillor. “We knew this game was not going to be as easy, so it was more about little details, including special teams.”

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“We did not want to allow any goals on the power play and we needed to score on the power play. Unfortunately we gave up those two goals against and the special teams hurt us tonight.”

Matthew McKim opened the scoring on a Bonnyville power play just under six minutes into the game,

But Lukas Jirousek would get the Storm on the board with a power play goal of his own, converting a feed from Brendan Kwiatkowski.

The score would hold until late in the second, when Kash Rasmussen’s point shot on the power play got by Lars Kaliel with just 0.7 seconds left in the period.

Still, the Storm came out with hope to start the third period… hope that was somewhat quashed when Marc-Antoine Benoit scored halfway through the final frame to give Bonnyville a two goal lead.

“We wanted that next goal, down 2-1.” added Keillor “We thought maybe this was something that is going to get us out of this funk – winning a game that we were not supposed to win. “

“But that third goal just suffocated us.”

The Storm pulled Kaliel with three and a half minutes left and pulled to within one on Brody Dale’s sixth goal of the season. But that would be as close as they would get.

Kaliel was exceptional in the Storm net, making 37 saves en route to being named the game’s first star.

“He has not played in three games so it was a good game for him to get into.” said Keillor. “I felt he gave us at least an opportunity to win, so that’s all that you can ask for.”

After out-shooting the Pontiacs 44-31 on Friday night, the Storm were on the short end of the shot clock Saturday, being out shot 40-20.

“We are not used to being out-shot like that so it was something new for us and I thought a perfect time to get out of (the losing streak).” added Keillor.

The loss is the eighth in a row for the Storm, who remain tied with Drayton Valley for sixth in the AJHL’s North Division.

“We can expect this out of a young team – the ups and downs – but not down this long.” said Keillor. “We are really hoping that the only way they are going to crawl out of it is to look inside of themselves and do it.”

After a day off on Sunday, the Storm will return to the practice ice on Monday as they begin preparations to face Fort McMurray on Friday night.