The Trail Smoke Eaters were the last team to beat the Vees in Penticton and on Wednesday night, they hope to end the defending BCHL champ’s 50-game home ice win streak.
Penticton hasn’t lost on home ice since game one of the 2022 playoffs on March 31st, when the Smokies scored a 5-3 win.
The Trail troupe hopes to carry the momentum of a three-out-of-four point weekend on the road.
They took it to the Vipers for much of the game last Friday and won it on Adam Parsons’ overtime goal with about 20 seconds remaining.
The next night in Merritt, the Smokies had to battle back from a 4-1 second period deficit with three unanswered goals, before bowing 5-4 in overtime.
The Smoke Eaters have a victory over the Vees in the season series. The 4-3 overtime victory in Trail was one night after the Vees won 4-3 in overtime over Trail in Penticton’s home opener. It was also Parsons who sniped the winner against the Vees at Cominco Arena.
Penticton has prevailed in the last two head-to-head meetings, winning 6-3 in Trail and 6-1 in Penticton.
The Smoke Eaters will face a balanced offensive attack led by Callum Arnott with 23 points, one more than Ryan MacPherson and two more than his brother Connor MacPherson and Swiss import, Simon Meier. Defenseman Francesco Dell’Elce scored two of his six goals this season the last time the Smokies were in Penticton and has an impressive 19 points.
The Vees power play is also potent at 32.4%.
Max Potvin and Ridge Dawson are tied for the Smokies points lead with 18 and Dawson is tied with Adam Marshall with a team-leading nine goals.
Trail’s scoring is also balanced as Parsons, Marshall, Mathieu Cobetto-Roy and Josh Schenk all have 17 points and defenseman Adam Barone has 16.
Smokies top four defenseman Patrick Reilly returns against Penticton after missing four games following a heavy hit in Cranbrook.
The Vees, who lost 2-1 to Vernon in a shootout last Saturday, take a 19-game consecutive game points streak into the game, which ends a three game road swing for the Smokies.
Opening face-off is at 6:30 p.m. The game can be heard on Mixlr and watched on FloHockey.
The Smoke Eaters return home Friday to host the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. Game sponsor for that night is Red Mountain Resort and it will also be Fruitvale Elementary’s Smokies in our School Night and White Ribbon Night. Also, if the Smokies score within the first five minutes, drinks will only be $5/each for the rest of the night, excluding king cans. Tickets are still available. Fans are encouraged to skip the line and secure their seats online at Tickets.TrailSmokeEaters.com.
