Grande Prairie Storm coach/general manager Blaine Bablitz had Marc Drapeau playing on a line before the two Storm forwards had even met.
During the summer when he acquired the 20-year-old from a Junior AAA team in Quebec, Bablitz said he would be a good fit for returning Storm speedster Gus Correale.
He was right!
The line of Drapeau, Correale and rookie Dylan Thudium had eight points to help the Storm to a 4-2 win over the Prince George Spruce Kings in an exhibition game in the Canada Games Arena on Friday night.
Drapeau, a native of Sherbrooke, Quebec, led the way with three goals while Thudium had three helpers and Correale two assists.
Drapeau scored his first two goals in the first while defenceman Jeremy Barriault, on the powerplay, also scored to give the Storm a 3-1 lead just over 12 minutes into the game.
The Spruce Kings got a goal from Liam Board at 17:34 of the first to cut the lead to 3-1.
Drapeau's hattrick goal at 4:58 of the second made it 4-1 and Karan Toor rounded out the game's coring at 10:48 of the second.
Nick Kulmanovsky played the first half of the game in net for the Storm looking at 14 shots allowing both PG goals while David Readman was perfectd at the other end getting in front of 11.
Prince George went with 16-year-old Liam McLeod in goal. He had to handle 20 Storm shots including a stop on a shorthanded breakaway by Storm forward Taylor Cote in the third period.
The game wrapped up the Storm home pre-season schedule. They head to Prince George to take on the Spruce Kings on Saturday night.
Grande Prairie opens the season on the road next weekend in Sherwood Park and Camrose before returning home to take on the Lloydminster Bobcats in their home opener weekend Sept. 14-15.