Grande Prairie Storm forward Nathan Morgan. Photo Credit: EverythingGP Staff

By Shane Clausing

Storm finish regular season

Storm end regular season with positive performance against Whitecourt

Feb 26, 2020 | 11:41 AM

While the Storm’s winless streak stretched to 15 games following a 3-1 loss to the Whitecourt Wolverines, it wasn’t all doom and gloom Tuesday night at Revolution Place.

For a team that’s been struggling to get positive performances as of late, Tuesday night’s game was one of their better performances during their tough stretch.

In the first period, despite outplaying the Wolverines, the Storm found themselves trailing 2-0 after 20 minutes.

Brayden Labant would open the scoring 7:06 into the period. He would use his speed, get passed the Storm defender and score the goal blocker side on Kaeden Lane to make it 1-0 Whitecourt.

As the end of the first approached, Brenden Kwiatkowski would head to the box for interference sending the Wolverines to the powerplay.

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While the Storm created several scoring chances on the penalty kill, the Wolverines would get the puck in the Grande Prairie zone with 10 seconds remaining on the powerplay.

Adam Sandstrom would slap the puck on net, and it would take deflections off both Ryan Wallz and Bryce Osepchuk squeaking past Kaeden Lane to put the Wolverines up 2-0.

Despite his team being down 2-0, Storm Interim Head Coach Ryan Aasman said the energy in the room was positive.

“I liked the response from the group in the room. They took control, stepped up and said, ‘we have this.’ They kept their positivity up, kept their confidence up and they kept working. They didn’t evade from the game plan, they didn’t get individual, they kept working, they grew and took a step forward. I was very happy with that.”

The vibe in the locker room seemed to pay off for the Storm, as they entered the second period with a sense of urgency.

The Storm would fire 14 shots at the way of Wolverines goaltender Vincent Duplessis, but were unable to get anything past him.

The Storm continued to pressure the Wolverines in the third.

After a missed opportunity on an early period powerplay, Max Giangulano would throw a big hit behind the Wolverines net, and would then drop the gloves with Whitecourt’s Ethan Green.

Both players picked up game misconducts on the play, but Green would pick up an extra minor penalty for instigating, sending the Storm back to the powerplay.

Grande Prairie couldn’t find the back of the net on the powerplay, but just as man advantage expired, Carter Myrol redirected the Devin Sutton shot into the back of the net to cut the lead to 2-1.

The Storm continued to pressure, and had a chance to nearly tie the game as a Nathan Morgan wrister from the wing with just over five minutes to play hit the post on Duplessis’ glove side.

Despite the pressure, the Wolverines would bend, but not break and would go onto add one late in the game to pick up the victory.

After the game, Aasman was thrilled about his team’s performance.

“I was really happy with that effort, everybody knows we’ve been through a rough patch, but I couldn’t be happier with our effort tonight. They played the right way, competed really hard, I was very happy with the work ethic tonight,” said Aasman.

The Storm will now flip the page on the regular season and look towards the playoffs, which begin on March 1.

Grande Prairie finishes their season as the seven seed in the AJHL North Division.

They’ll take on the number two seed Spruce Grove Saints in a best of seven series in round one, beginning March 1 in Spruce Grove. Games three and four will be held at Revolution Place, which will go March 4 and 5.