Glacier Kings Look to Ride the Wave Against Kraken on Zero Rest

The Glacier Kings are back home tonight for the second night in a row, hosting the Lake Cowichan Kraken at Comox Valley Sports Centre. Puck drop is 6:30 PM, barely 24 hours after Comox Valley closed out a 7-1 win in North Saanich.

That turnaround is the story heading into tonight. Back-to-back games are always a test, and this one comes after the Glacier Kings’ most complete game of the young season, a heavy workload for Ander Reyes in net and a balanced scoring attack across four different goal scorers. The question is whether tired legs on a short turnaround let a rebuilding Kraken team hang around longer than they should. Curtis Toneff will have some decisions to make on energy management, particularly with Tegan Clayton and Collin Lee, who both logged multi-point nights less than a day ago and currently sit tied for the team scoring lead with three points apiece through two games.

The Opponent

Lake Cowichan enters at 0-1-0-0, having opened its season with a 3-2 road loss at Nanaimo on September 4th. It was closer than the final suggests only because of a late wrinkle: trailing 2-1 in the third, the Kraken pulled their goalie and paid for it, surrendering an empty-net goal to Nanaimo’s Jack Barrett at 18:42 to fall behind 3-1, before Kohen Hartmann scored with 5 seconds left to make the final 3-2. Rookie goaltender Caleb Boileau made 26 saves in the loss. It’s a new-look program in North Cowichan this year, with Dan Lemmon taking over as head coach alongside an entirely new assistant coaching staff, so there’s an adjustment period to account for.

History strongly favours Comox Valley in this matchup. The Glacier Kings have won 13 of the last 17 meetings between these two clubs, including a dominant 5-0-1-0 record against the Kraken a year ago, and Comox Valley has been especially strong at home, going 5-3-1-0 against the Kraken at Comox Valley Sports Centre over the last five seasons. None of that guarantees anything on a short turnaround, but it’s the kind of matchup where a team playing its second game in two nights can still be expected to find a way.

Comox Valley sits at 1-1-0-0, currently ranked 2nd in the VIJHL on the power play at 37.5% and tied for 1st on the penalty kill at a perfect 100%. Reyes, meanwhile, leads the entire league in both save percentage (.976) and GAA (1.00) through his first start. Keeping those special teams numbers intact against a Kraken team still finding its identity would go a long way toward banking two points on tired legs.

Puck drop is 6:30 PM at Comox Valley Sports Centre. Follow along for updates throughout the night.