Gage Colpron had a goal and two assists as the Campbell River Storm defeated the Oceanside Generals 4-1 in the opening game of their best of seven playoff series played Wednesday night at Rod Brind’Amour Arena.
The Storm fired a season high 62 shots on Generals goaltender David Anderson, who kept the score respectable with a number of brilliant saves.
“You’ve got to give credit to Anderson,” said Storm head coach Lee Stone, “He plays very square (to the puck), always makes the first save, and has great hands. But I don’t think we did much to take his strengths away. We have to shoot low because he pumps out rebounds -- two of goals tonight were off rebounds in the slot.”
Connor Logan collides with the goaltender David Anderson, bringing two Generals defenders along for the ride.
Will McNamara opened the scoring, hammering home one of those rebounds at 6:08 of the first period. Kobe Oishie made it 2-0 exactly eight minutes later, picking the top corner with a hard wrist shot after dashing down the left wing. Josiah Friesen assisted on both goals.
Oceanside cut the lead in half at 13:26 of the second period on Brendan Bilotta’s power play marker, just seconds after the Storm had killed off a lengthy two-man advantage. However, Michael Olson made it 3-1 less than two minutes later after a nice set up by line-mates Colpron and Josh Coblenz.
Anderson managed to weather a third period barrage, stopping all 20 shots fired his way, only to see Colpron put the game away with an empty net marker in the final minute.
Riley Welyk faced 17 shots in the Campbell River net. The Storm power play went 0 for 6, while Oceanside was 1 for 4.
The locals dressed four affiliate players (Coblenz, Dawson Frank, Liam Nijhoff, and Nic Kirchner) as a number of regulars served suspensions for their part in a fight-filled contest against Comox Valley last weekend.
Game 2 goes 7:30 tonight at Rod Brind’Amour Arena.
Storm captain Jordan Rauser received the VIJHL Community Leadership Award.