“Easily, our most complete game of the year so far.”
Grande Prairie Storm coach Matt Hughes liked what he saw from his club Thursday night at the Canada Games Arena, as the Storm laid an 8-3 beatdown on the Bonnyville Pontiacs.
The line of Tyson McCallum, Ryan Baskerville and Stephen Doane was especially effective this night, accounting for ten points. McCallum had a goal—with one second left in the second period—plus three assists, Baskerville a goal and two helpers and Doane with two goals and one assist.
For Doane, the goals were his first as a member of the Storm since coming over at the start of the year from Drumheller, in the trade which sent goalie Curtis Skip to the Dragons. Coach Hughes was happy to see Doane finally snap his goalless streak.
“Stephen's a very talented player, who just wasn't getting the bounces. There's no reason why he can't be a twenty goal scorer in this league.”
Despite winning by five goals, Nick Kulmanovsky had to be sharp, as he let only three of 49 Bonnyville shots elude him. A steady stream of penalties led to the Pontiacs getting eleven powerplays on the night, of which the Storm killed off nine. Grande Prairie, meantime, was one for six with the man advantage.
Also notching his first goal as a member of the Storm was young defenceman Kaleb Denham. Blake Bosch, Landon Gross and Sam Lawson rounded out the scoring for Grande Prairie, which moves back to the 500 mark on the season, at 5-5. The Pontiacs, meantime, fall to 4-6.
Storm now get a couple days off to practice, before returning to action Sunday afternoon at the Canada Games Arena. Whitecourt Wolverines are in town for a 2:30 matinee affair.
– Story by Don Whiteford of www.PeaceCountrySports.com.