Written by Gary Moskalyk
Carter Streek had a pair of goals and Colin Doherty scored the game winner as the Grande Prairie Storm defeated Kam River 3-1 in game two action at the Max Bell Centre.
Rankings are wide open in Group A.
The Northern Manitoba Blizzard leads with four points. Three teams have three points–including Grande Prairie. Kam River is in fifth with two. All of the Group A teams have played two games. Three teams per group will qualify for the play offs after a four-game round robin.
The Walleye can jump back–if not catapult–into the quarterfinal picture with a win Monday night (May 12th) against the Blizzard. Game time is 7:30 MDT.
Logan Cunningham’s cross-ice feed to Streek, parked on the doorstep of Kam River’s Ashton Sadauskas, led to a 1-0 Grande Prairie lead at 7:41 of the first. Doherty collected the secondary assist.
Doherty’s one-timer at 15:27 on a Storm power play opened up a 2-0 lead. Streek provided a screen and Alec Hall’s pass to the tape teed up the blocker side missile.
Shots were even at 10 through the first 20 minutes.
Grande Prairie outshot Kam River 17-7 in a scoreless second frame. Kaden Goodwin had Kam River’s best look of the period. Sadauskas denied Kaiden Bugera’s effort later in the frame. Nick Jones absorbed Zach Baumann’s wrister with no rebound to maintain the two-goal spread.
Baumann hit the scoreboard at 1:45 of the third to halve the Storm lead to one goal. Jett Mintenko sent Baumann in the clear for the critical strike from close in. Carter Poddubny garnered the second assist.
Streek pounded in his own rebound at 7:31 of the third from the crease area to regain the two-goal edge. Will Harris and Bugera combined on the insurance marker.
Kam River pulled Sadauskas with just over a minute to go but couldn’t narrow the score.
Former Walleye Max Leduc played for Grand Prairie. The Thunder Bay native had 45 regular season points in 46 games, with 14 playoff points in 12 games for the 2022-23 Walleye.
Baumann was selected as player-of-the-game for Kam River. Sadauskas shunted 37 of 40 and certainly was in the MVP conversation. Streek took home the prize for Grande Prairie. Nick Jones had 24 saves for the Storm.
The Storm took five of the eight minor penalties assessed. Grande Prairie was 1-2 on the power play, while Kam River was 0-4.