For a third time in this young BCHL season, the Trail Smoke Eaters were a shot or a bounce away from victory, before being denied 4-3 in overtime, in the regular season home opener for the Penticton Vees.
The Smokies got off to a great start, but their momentum ended with an early penalty.
Trail killed that off and Penticton pressure for several following minutes when they got a power play of their own.
Mathieu Cobetto-Roy sniped a one-timer from the right-wing circle at 12:30 to give the Smokies the lead.
Vees defenseman Larry Keenan would tie the game about four minutes later, sneaking in from the point and snapping in a loose puck from close range.
Trail regained the lead about seven minutes into the second period when Ridge Dawson streaked down the right wing, through the crease and shoved a shot past Vees goalie Andrew Ness, who was then replaced by Will Ingemann.
Smoke Eaters goalie Ryan Parker kept the Penticton push at bay until 15:22, when defenseman Brock Reinhart pinched in from the point and snapped a shot into the top corner.
The Penticton pressure reached a pinnacle about two and a half minutes later, when Attila Lippai launched a shot into the top corner from the slot, giving the home side a 3-2 lead heading into the third period.
The Smoke Eaters responded on an early third-period power play, when Adam Parsons deflected a point shot past Ingemann at 5:35 and it was the Smokies other specialty team that shone later in the period.
The penalty kill thwarted two Penticton power plays including a four-minute advantage with Parker providing the last line of defense.
Ingemann also made some stellar stops to send the game to overtime, including a glove snag off Josh Schenk that appeared labelled for the bottom corner.
Despite being outshot 44-16 through 60-minutes of regulation action, the Smoke Eaters dominated overtime, with many of their eight extra-time shots being potential goals, but Ingemann shut the door, including a puck that got through his pads and skittered just wide of the net.
The Vees got the winner at 6:43 of overtime when Callum Arnott corralled a bouncing puck and shovelled a shot that snuck past a diving Ryan Parker.
The referees reviewed the play in the penalty time-keepers bench and ruled it was a good goal.
Parker made 42 saves, including 15 in the third period.
Ingemann stopped 15-of-16 shots, while Ness gave up two goals on eight shots.
The Smoke Eaters scored on both of their power plays and killed off five Penticton advantages without captain Ethan Warrener, who is a regular on both specialty teams.
The Trail defenseman will also likely sit out Saturday’s return match at Cominco Arena with a lower body injury aggravated in practice earlier in the week.
The win extends the Vees home-ice winning streak to 44 games, dating back to Mar 31, 2022 when they were beaten by Trail in game one of their opening round playoff series. Trail (1-1-3) also handed Penticton (3-1-1) their last regular season home opening loss in 2004.
