Campbell River will play host to this year’s VIJHL all-star game later this month, and several of the north team’s players will be well-acquainted with the Rod Brind’Amour Arena.
The Storm, who sat first in the standings at the Christmas break, make up almost half of the lineup while head coach Cam Basarab and his staff will be behind the bench.
The league named the all-stars on Jan. 3. Among the forwards, Campbell River’s Damon Porter, Mike Dyck, Damon Kramer and Reid Wheeldon will join Nanaimo’s Billy Walters, Joshua Zary, Trey Watson and Darian Harris, Oceanside’s Landon Dziadyk and Ryan Ignace, and Comox Valley’s Damian Rennie and Jordan Neufeld up front.
On the blue line, the Storm’s Cole Slaney, Kyle Jennings, Logan Cursley and Scott Rademaker will play alongside Nanaimo’s Lucas Patton and Zackary Evans.
Campbell River’s Aaron de Kok will be in net along with the Comox Valley’s Matthias Smith and Oceanside’s Jacob Sweet.
The game will be held Jan. 20 starting at 4 p.m.
The following weekend, some of the league’s best younger players will lace up for the Prospects Game in Saanich. The game for 16- to 18-year-olds is held Jan. 27 at George Pearkes Arena at 3:30 p.m.
The league named the Prospects Game teams the same day as the all-star lineups were announced. The north’s team will include Storm forwards Davis Frank, Noah Fladager, Josh Pederson, Owen Christensen and Tyler Chyzowski, defencemen Jennings and Jackson Dyke and de Kok in goal. Basarab will also be serving as head coach.
In league play, the Storm resumed their winning ways on the weekend, picking up a 6-2 win at home against Comox Valley on Friday and a 4-3 overtime victory on the road over Kerry Park on Saturday. Porter, Dyke, Dyck and Zach Trempner tallied goals in the Saturday match-up. Trempner, who was chosen league player of the week, also scored a hat trick against the Glacier Kings the night before, with Porter, Dyck and Rademaker adding the other goals. De Kok and Little split the wins in net.
The Storm are back at home Friday night to take on Nanaimo. Game time is 7:30 p.m.