photo courtesy Shane Clausing/EverythingGP

By Jeff Henson

STORM

Storm de-claw Grizzlys

Jan 5, 2020 | 9:44 AM

At the end of the season, they simply ask how many wins you had, not how pretty any of them were,

The Grande Prairie Storm admittedly won an ugly one on Saturday night, getting goals from four different players en route to a 4-2 win over the Olds Grizzlys.

“That was not a good effort from the boys at all.” stated Storm coach Ryan Aasman after the game. “We were sloppy from start to finish. There was no connectivity at all, our power play continued to struggle, we just were not better at all.”

The Storm did open the scoring late in the first period as Austin Schellenberg found the back of the net with eight seconds left for his fourth goal of the season.

The Storm were extremely sloppy with play in their own end to start the second period, with the Grizzlys finally taking advantage of numerous turnovers by the home side as Hoon Kim squeezed one by Kaeden Lane at the 7:27 mark to tie the game up.

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Brett Meerman would give the home side the lead once again just over three minutes later on a power play, as he picked up his fifth goal in his last seven games.

“What I really like about Brett is that he has really bought in to his play without the puck.” said Aasman. “He has been a lot better defensively, he supports the puck, he is learning to shot block. But he is also very smart without the puck offensively, he finds areas and has a very high IQ and skill set.”

But as quickly as the Storm were celebrating their go ahead goal, the Grizzlys found a way to even things up again, as Logan Bromhead squeezed one behind Lane on a breakaway just 25 seconds later to send the teams to the dressing room tied at 2.

Aasman admits he had to use a bit of psychology on his team during that middle period.

“I had a wide array of emotions.” said Aasman. “I ripped them pretty good during the media time-out in the second, but then during the intermission I came into the room and stressed that I felt they would find a way to win the hockey game, that I believed in them and that they would do it as a group and not as individuals.”

The Storm would come out strong to start the third, as Brody Dale scored just 1:21 into the third to give the hosts their third and final lead of the night.

Carter Myrol would add insurance at the 12:06 mark to round out the scoring.

The Storm would fire 40 shots as Olds’ netminder Duncan Hughes, who was strong in net on his 20th birthday.

Not to be outdone though, Lane made 29 saves en route to being named the game’s first star.

The win pulled the Storm back into a fifth place tie with Drayton valley in the AJHL’s North Division.

Those two teams will face off against each other this Friday and Saturday in Drayton Valley.