PHOTO: Mike Hockley
The Trail Smoke Eaters head back on the road and make their first trip of the season south of the border to the United States to take on the Wenatchee Wild on Wednesday night at the Town Toyota Center.
Smoke Eaters vs. Wild 2018/19 Schedule:
Saturday, September 29th @ Trail Memorial Centre (5-2 Wild) (BOXSCORE)
Wednesday, October 24th @ Town Toyota Center (6:00 PM)
Friday, November 16th @ Trail Memorial Centre (7:00 PM)
Wednesday, December 19th @ Trail Memorial Centre (7:00 PM)
Friday, January 18th @ Town Toyota Center (7:05 PM)
Saturday, January 19th @ Town Toyota Center (7:05 PM)
The Smoke Eaters and Wild debuted against one another in late September at the Trail Memorial Centre with the visiting Wild earning a 5-2 victory. Mack Byers and Michael Hodge each registered a power play goal in the game but two goals from Christophe Fillion and four assists from Murphy Stratton were too much to overcome in the defeat. Adam Marcoux stopped 22 of the 27 shots he faced in the losing effort.
Trail comes into Wednesday night looking to get back on track after a tough week of games, dropping three in a row with the latest being a 4-3 setback to the West Kelowna Warriors on Saturday night at the Trail Memorial Centre. Mack Byers, Bryce Anderson and Kent Johnson found the back of the net while Tanner Marshall stopped 19 of the 23 shots thrown his way in the loss.
Smoke Eaters Leading Scorers:
Braeden Tuck (7-8-15)
Levi Glasman (3-12-15)
Trevor Zins (4-10-14)
Kent Johnson (8-5-13)
Carter Jones (4-9-13)
After missing the first 16 games of the season, Smoke Eaters forward Owen Ozar will make his debut tonight in Wenatchee. The 18-year-old has been sidelined since Trail’s second to last preseason game in West Kelowna and will look to make an immediate impact in the lineup. The Prince Albert, Saskatchewan native had an outstanding season in the Saskatchewan Midget Hockey League last year, finishing 3rd in scoring on the Swift Current Legionnaires with 22 goals and 33 assists for 55 points and will wear #21 for the Smokies tonight.
Kent Johnson will look to continue his strong offensive output over the last couple of weeks. The newly-minted 16-year-old, as of October 18th, has points in five of his last six games and has scored in back-to-back contests. The Port Moody, BC native leads all 2002-born players in the BCHL with eight goals and thirteen points and is in the top of the league in power play points with eight.
The Smoke Eaters haven’t had a lot of success when heading south of the border as they are winless in their last six games at the Town Toyota Center, including three postseason games last year. The last victory for Trail in Wenatchee came on November 27th, 2015 with the Wild winning three regular season and three playoff games on home ice against the Smokies in that time.
The Wenatchee Wild come into the mid-week showdown with a 7-6-2-0 record and picked up three of a possible four points against the Merritt Centennials last weekend when a 4-3 overtime loss was followed up by a 6-1 victory. Josh Arnold scored twice in the game while Matt Gosiewski, Chad Sasaki and Matt Dorsey earned singles while Austin Park turned aside 27 of the 28 shots he faced for his 5th win of the season.
Wild Leading Scorers:
Lucas Sowder (4-12-16)
Matt Gosiewski (7-7-14)
Murphy Stratton (2-12-14)
Christophe Fillion (9-4-13)
Cristophe Tellier (5-7-12)
Josh Arnold has found a recent surge of offense for the Wild as the Penticton, BC native has collected points in each of his last three games. Arnold has earned three goals and an assist for four points in that span, including a two-goal performance on Saturday night in the Wild’s 6-1 victory over the Centennials. The Northern Michigan University commit was all over the scoresheet in that contest, finishing with a power play marker, a shorthanded tally and seven penalty minutes including a fight.
Wenatchee is in the midst of a long set of games on home ice after spending the first 11 games of the season on the road. The Wild played host to Merritt for a pair of games last weekend and will remain on home ice for seven of their next eight games. Wenatchee finished their championship 2017/18 campaign with the best record at home of any other BCHL club, registering a 24-4-1 record when playing at home.
The Wild are trying to find their footing after an unusually slow start out of the gates to the season, sitting in 6th place in the Interior Division standings with one more victory than the 7th place Vernon Vipers. Wenatchee won’t be a team on the penalty kill much as they own the 4th-least PIM’s in the BCHL and have just 49 in four home games this season.
The Smoke Eaters and Wild drop the puck at 6:00 PM from the Town Toyota Center with the pre-game show going at 5:50 PM on mixlr.com/trail-smoke-eaters as well as HockeyTV.com with the Voice of the Smoke Eaters, Trevor Miller. Trail returns home on Friday night for a 7:00 PM face-off against the Prince George Spruce Kings.
