It's a long bus trip from Camrose to Grande Prairie.
Even longer when you have to sit for six hours or so contemplating what you could have done better to help your team to a victory.
The Grande Prairie Storm players put themselves in that position Saturday after losing 5-1 to the Kodiaks in the central Alberta city. It was the second game of a three-game road stretch that ends on Tuesday against the Wolverines in Whitecourt.
And while the players were pondering the loss in Camrose, they were no doubt also wondering what they can do better to improve things on the road, where they have just one win in 11 games this season.
Camrose – in fourth place in the Alberta Junior Hockey League's South Division with a 12-9-1 record – had taken a 3-0 lead on goals by Branden Voss (in the first) and Joseph Tambasco and Kyler Krupka in the second.
When Dallas Comeau scored at 7:22 of the middle frame to get the Storm back in the game at 3-1 the team had over half a game to chip away at the two-goal lead.
They couldn't get over the hump and the Kodiaks put it away with third period tallies by Slater Strong and Tyler Schendel.
Xavier Burghardt got the start in the GP net and faced 46 shots while the Storm fired 24 at Patrick Gora at the other end.
Comeau's goal was his sixth of the season and 12th point, putting him 10 back of team points leader Michael Clarke.
Comeau also took the only penalty of the game handed out to either team – a hooking minor in the second period.
The Storm still sit in sixth place in the North Division, six points back of the Sherwood Park Crusaders and six up on the seventh place Drayton Valley Thunder. The eighth place Lloydminster Bobcats are now eight back of the Storm after gaining a point in overtime Saturday.
Good news for the Storm is after the game in Whitecourt they return home for a pair of games next weekend. The team is 5-4-2 at Revolution Place. They host the Brooks Bandits on Friday and the Okotoks Oilers on Saturday. Both games start at 7:30 p.m.