Andre Ghantous, Celebrating his Second of the Night
Up against a hot goaltender and coming up short on special teams the Smokies lost to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks 6-3 on Friday night at the Cominco arena. After a sensational comeback win in Penticton on Wednesday night the Smokies hoped to carry that momentum into the game against the Silverbacks but suffered a disappointing loss.
Ross Armour put the Smokies up 1-0 at 14:09 of the first period with his 12th goal of the season, assisted on by Josh Laframboise and Connor Brown Maloski. However, the the Silverbacks took a 2-1 lead into the dressing room on goals by Elijiah Barriga and Josh Blanchard at 14:52 and 18:12 respectively.
The Backs, again, outscored Trail in the second 2-1 to take a 4-2 lead heading into the third. The Smokies tied the game at 6:27 of the second on a goal by Andre Ghantous. Ross Armour assisted on the marker. At 6:37 Elijiah Barriga scored his second goal of the game to give the Backs a 3-2 lead. The Silverback’s Carter Cochrane put Salmon Arm up 4-2 at 19:27 of the period.
The Smokies came out fired up in the third when Andre Ghantous scored his second goal of the game and fifth of the season at 3:16. The Smokies pulled their goaltender twice late in the third period but the Silverbacks scored two empty net goals to seal the 6-3 win. Mitch Skapski scored at 18:59 and Justin Wilson scored at 19:41.
Armour Capitalizing on a Chance
“We had more then enough opportunities to put ourselves in better spots throughout the night,” commented assistant Smokie coach, Curtis Toneff. “Credit there goalie, who battled hard in the Back’s net.” “A couple of our goals against were preventable miscues in the defensive zone.” “It wasn’t effort based and we have a chance to get them back tonight.”
First star of the game was the Smokie’s Andre Ghantous with two goals, second star was the Back’s Elijiah Barriga also with 2 goals. Third star went to Trail’s Ross Armour with a goal and an assist. Fortis Energy Player of the Game was the Smokie’s Mitchell Barker.
On the night the Smokies outshot the Silverbacks 46 – 31. The strong netminding of Salmon Arm’s Nic Tallarico was instrumental in the win for the Backs. Special teams were also a problem for the Smokies in the game as they failed to capitalize on 6 power play opportunities.
The game was marred by a vicious hit on Smokie’s Mitchell Stapley resulting in a concussion and broken jaw for Stapley. Being one of the Smokie’s top defencemen this season he will be sorely missed. There was no penalty assesed on the hit as it happened behind the play but the incident is under review for possible supplemental discipline.
Eleven of the last 17 games for the Smokies are with division rivals and results of those games will go a long way to determine playoff positioning for Trail. Needless to say the Smokies will have to be firing on all cylinders for the remainder of the season but there is concern regarding the cooling off of a few top Smokies who were tearing up the league in early December. Their sticks have gone cold of late and here’s hoping they will get hot again soon.
The Smokies travel to Salmon Arm for the second game of the home and home series on tonight before returning home next Friday and Saturday for games against Langley and Surrey. Friday’s game against Langley is 7:30 PM and Saturday’s game against Surrey is at 7:00 PM. Both games are at the Cominco Arena.
