The Drayton Valley Thunder opened the 2013-2014 AJHL regular season on the road against the Grande Prairie Storm. The boys made the 4 and a half hour trip on Thursday evening in order to get prepared for yesterday’s contest. It was also the Storm’s first game of the season and home opener which brought 1620 spectators to the Canada Games Arena.
The Storm got the first goal of their season 8 minutes into the first period on a goal from Jade McMullen but the Thunder bounced back with their first goal of the season 3 minutes later. Veteran Trevor Poirier got the boys on the board with a power play goal after Storm player Tyler Haiste went off for holding. The Thunder countered once again in the frame with a goal by Brendan McKay with under 2 minutes left to head into the break up by one.
The second period was a hard working effort that saw starting goaltender Marc-Olivier Daigle making incredible saves while the Storm outshot the Thunder 13-4 in the period. Newly acquired Dylan Bredahl scored the lone goal for the Thunder in the frame, with an assist going to Tanner Clarkson. The boys saw themselves tied (3-3) heading into the third.
The third period was another hard working period by the Thunder as they tried to take the early lead, however it was the Storm that caught the break and went up 4-3 on a power play goal after Anthony Kapelke went off for holding. Less than a minute later, Trevor Poirier got the Thunder even with his second of the season on a nice passing play from Anthony Kapelke, making up for his earlier penalty. The Thunder battled for the remainder of the period, but with less than 4 minutes remaining, the Storm found the back of the net and added an empty netter to take the opener 6-4.
The Thunder played well and had great games from goaltender Marc-Olivier Daigle (who received the Pro Hockey Life Star of the Game), rookie Brett Smythe who chipped in with 2 assists in his first AJHL regular season game, veteran Trevor Poirier who got his season off in the right direction with 2 goals and returning defenseman Chandler Irvin who also chipped in offensively with 2 assists.
The boys look to extract some revenge on the Storm tonight as these two teams go head-to-head again at 7:30pm. You can catch the game on Fast Hockey by going to ajhl.ca and following the cues.
