The Trail Smoke Eaters road trip continued to be memorable and on Saturday night they created a fond, but anxious memory with a 5-4 victory.
They awoke to a power outage in Powell River and endured another long day of travel by bus and ferries which started at 7:30 a.m. and ended with the 3:45 p.m. arrival at the Chilliwack Coliseum.
Ryan Parker set the table with two great saves early in the first period and the rest of the team responded with an offensive outburst.
Ridge Dawson’s team leading 8th goal of the season at 13:33 was followed less than a minute later by a swatting one-time snipe by Mathieu Cobetto-Roy, who converted a Josh Schenk rebound that hit the inside cross bar and flew out. It was confirmed as a good goal after video review.
Max Potvin buried his 5th goal of the season, stuffing in a power play rebound from the side of the net to give Trail a 3-0 lead after one period.
Cobetto-Roy scored his second of the game and 4th of the season on a power play early in the second period.
He faked a pass and ripped a wrister into the top corner from the top of the right-wing circle three minutes into the period on a power play and Ethan Warrener converted another Josh Schenk rebound with the man advantage four minutes later and Trail was 3-for-3 on the power play and up 5-0 on the scoreboard. Schenk gave the Chilliwack defense fits throughout the game with his speed and power moves to the net.
The Chiefs started to chip away with a goal just past the 11-minute mark, but the four-goal lead looked secure heading into the third period.