Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

Storm return to ice

Storm set to restart regular season in Drayton Valley

Mar 13, 2021 | 9:21 AM

For the first time since November 21, the Grande Prairie Storm will play an AJHL game as they hit the road to face the Drayton Valley Thunder Saturday.

The 2020-21 AJHL season was paused shortly after November 21, after the Government of Alberta implemented new COVID-19 public health measures to help slow the spread of the disease.

As of last week, the AJHL and provincial government approved the league and its teams to begin training camp, after all of the teams showed negative COVID-19 test results.

Grande Prairie Storm Head Coach and General Manager Mike Vandekamp says his team is ready to finally get back into game action.

“We’ve had good practices, there’s lots of enthusiasm, everybody’s excited to be back to work. We’ve tried to touch on as many aspects of our game as we can in a short period of time,” said Vandekamp. “Most importantly, we’ve been trying to get our conditioning back.”

Plan Ahead

Why Would You Pre-Plan Your Funeral?

Apr 03, 2024

Dying away from home

What Happens if You Die Away From Home?

Mar 04, 2024

Flag Retiring Ceremony

What Do You Do With Worn-Out Flags?

Feb 01, 2024

Vandekamp adds it was a strange feeling having such a long break in the middle of the season, rather than between seasons.

“I’ve never been through anything like this, and I don’t think any of the players have either. It will be fun to getting back to playing games here this weekend.”

If there is one positive he could take away from training camp so far, it is that thanks to the three months of the AJHL’s Development Season from August to November, they’ve been able to jump into details and specifics of their teams game quickly.

“We had been working on our game for three months, so a lot of discussion, terminology and language that we use to talk about our defensive zone play or our special teams was already in play, so it gives us a head start,” said Vandekamp.

“It’s not like totally starting over, there’s a lot of familiarity with everything that we’ve been working on before. We had some video that we’ve worked with from the last weekend that we played. It’s a bit like riding a bike, you just kind of get back on and take off right where you were before.”

Since the Western Hockey League has resumed its season, the Storm will be missing some of the players who started the season with them.

Forward Edge Lambert and goaltender Garin Bjorklund have both headed back to their WHL teams, while forward Sasha Mutala was given the opportunity to play in the AHL for the Colorado Eagles, the Colorado Avalanche’s affiliate, this season.

Paycen Bjorklund, who was on loan from Tri-City, will remain with the Storm for the remainder of the season.

The Storm’s roster will be set at 23 skaters and three goaltenders. The roster that is brought into training camp will be the roster that finishes the season. This is because the transaction deadline for the AJHL was on February 25.

New additions this time around include Joe Howe, Ian Devlin, Devin Chapman, Cooper Connell and Brannon Butler.

Tonight’s Grande Prairie Storm game is set for 7:00 p.m. MST. All of the games this season will be streamed live on HockeyTV.

New for this year, Storm fans will also be able to watch all home games locally on Telus Optik TV.