When Gus Correale arrived in Grande Prairie he was Dan Correale’s little brother.
The 19-year-old Storm forward operated for a season in the shadow of big brother, who was the team’s second leading scorer in 2010-2011 and earned himself an NCAA scholarship.
He didn’t escape that shadow last year finishing fourth in team scoring, but it appears he is well on his way to making fans say “Dan who?.”
Correale, the younger one, scored two goals Saturday night to help the Storm to a 5-2 win over the Lloydminster Bobcats and extend the border city’s winless record to start the season to 0-5.
He now has four goals and two assists and is tied for the team league in scoring with six points after just four games.
Another Storm veteran, who isn’t escaping any shadows but is also coming into his own with the Storm, is Braden Crone. He also had two goals to go along with his one assist for four points in four games.
The win evened the Storm record at 2-2 and finished off a two-game home opener weekend and moves them into a three-way tie for second place in the Alberta Junior Hockey League North Division.
Grande Prairie never trailed on the weekend taking a 3-0 lead in a 4-2 win on Friday.
The Storm took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Crone and Correale, but the Bobcats roared back to tie the game when former Storm Nolan Yaremchuk scored at 15:07 of the first to make it 2-1 and Mitchell Gartner’s goal at 5:51 of the second made it 2-2.
The goal of the season, so far, was probably the biggest one of the weekend.
Storm forward Marc-Etienne Drapeau scored it stealing the puck from a Bobcats player to the side of the Lloydminster net and then sweeping the puck around goaltender Chase Martin just 10 seconds after the Bobcats had tied the game.
That goal took some steam out of the Bobcats and the Storm responded at 9:18 of the second on Crone’s second and then wrapped it up with Correale’s second, a high shot on a two-on-one, with 5:11 to go in the third.
The second period was highlighted by a melee that had Storm captain Taylor Cote and Bobcats netminder Chase Martin in the middle of it.
Martin played the puck behind the Lloydminster net and was bumped into by Cote. Lloydminster’s Kelvin Walz took exception and started a fight with Cote (but was not given an instigator). Cote was given five for the hit on Martin and five for fighting Walz and Martin, who took after Cote after the fight, was given a match for smashing Cote in the mouth several times with his blocker.
Before being ejected, Martin had 16 shots fired his way during his 37:51 of work while Kyle Baumgardner had to handle 13 shots while mopping up allowing one of the five goals.
Hometown boy Curtis Skip got his first Canada Games Arena start of the season and was solid while look at 27 shots, including a brilliant glove save on a deflection in the third period.
The Storm continue the home stand on Tuesday when the Drayton Valley Thunder visit for a 7:30 p.m. tilt.
