PHOTO: Mike Hockley
The Trail Smoke Eaters open a home-and-home set to conclude their regular season schedule against the West Kelowna Warriors beginning on Friday night at Royal LePage Place.
Smoke Eaters vs. Warriors 2018/19 Regular Season Schedule:
Friday, September 7th @ Cominco Arena (4-3 Warriors/OT) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, September 8th @ Royal LePage Place (6-4 Smoke Eaters) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, October 20th @ Cominco Arena (4-3 Warriors) (BOXSCORE)
Saturday, January 5th @ Royal LePage Place (8-4 Smoke Eaters) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, February 22nd @ Royal LePage Place (7:00 PM)
Saturday, February 23rd @ Cominco Arena (7:00 PM)
The Smoke Eaters and Warriors play in the fifth of their six-game season series tonight with the road team winning each of the first four matchups including an 8-4 Trail win at Royal LePage Place early in January. Kent Johnson tallied his first career BC Hockey League hat trick while Trevor Zins netted a pair of goals with Tyler Ghirardosi, Chase Stevenson and Hayden Rowan scored singles in the victory. Adam Marcoux turned aside 26 of the 30 shots he faced in the game in the win.
Trail comes into tonight’s matchup after a 6-4 loss to the Merritt Centennials on Saturday night at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena. Trevor Zins, Owen Ozar, Braeden Tuck and Chase Stevenson registered markers in the game for the Smoke Eaters while Donovan Buskey stopped 22 of the 27 shots he faced in the game in his 3rd loss of the season.
Smoke Eaters Leading Scorers:
Carter Jones (15-37-52)
Chase Stevenson (19-32-51)
Kent Johnson (20-25-45)
Trevor Zins (12-33-45)
Braeden Tuck (14-26-40)
Royal LePage Place has served as a home away from home for the Smokies over the last two seasons, coming into Friday night having won each of their last seven games in West Kelowna. The Smoke Eaters have outscored the Warriors by a staggering 40-19 margin in each of their last seven meetings with their power play clicking to the tune of a 9-for-16 clip (56.3%) over their two games in RLP this season including a 5-for-6 outing on January 5th in helping to an 8-4 victory.
Carter Jones continued his excellent stretch of play on Saturday night as his point streak reached four games and has now collected points in eight of his last nine contests. The Bemidji State University commit has earned two goals and six assists for nine points over his last four games and has overtaken the top scoring spot on the Smoke Eaters roster with his 52 points and team-leading 37 assists.
Another Smoke Eater to carry a point streak into tonight’s game is defender Trevor Zins, who holds a five-game point streak entering the regular season’s final weekend. The 20-year-old blue liner has registered a goal and five assists for six points over that span and comes into the game sitting 4th in scoring amongst defensemen with 45 points in 56 games played.
The West Kelowna Warriors enter Friday night’s contest just a point ahead of the Smoke Eaters in 6th place in the Interior Division after a 4-1 defeat to the Merritt Centennials on Tuesday night at Royal LePage Place. Mike Hardman scored the lone West Kelowna goal on the power play with Merritt scoring twice in the 3rd period to secure the win. Connor Hopkins pushed aside 42 of the 46 shots he faced in his 19th loss of the season.
Warriors Leading Scorers:
Mike Hardman (37-32-69)
Chase Dubois (20-40-60)
Willie Reim (24-33-57)
Parm Dhaliwal (15-35-50)
Lucas Cullen (24-23-47)
The Warriors made their second coaching change of the season in bringing in Brandon West, a former assistant in West Kelowna as well as head coaching stops in Salmon Arm and Surrey at the end of January after relieving former bench boss Geoff Grimwood. The Tribe has struggled in the month of February thus far, holding a 1-7-0-0 record along with dropping their last four games and haven’t found a victory on home ice since January 20th against the Prince George Spruce Kings.
Boston College commit Mike Hardman has been a thorn in the Smoke Eaters side this season along with the rest of the BCHL as he enters tonight’s game ranking 3rd in the league in points with 69. The Hanover, Massachusetts native is second in the league with 37 goals and has registered points in four of his last five games, earning five goals and an assist for six points including goals in back-to-back games. Hardman has played some of his best hockey against the Smoke Eaters this season, collecting three goals and four assists for seven points in four games against Trail.
The matchup between Trail and West Kelowna pins the two of the top three power plays against each other as the Warriors come in with the 2nd ranked man advantage in the league. West Kelowna sits at 23.3% on the power play while the Smoke Eaters enter play sitting 3rd in the BCHL at 22.4% including the third-most attempts on the power play in the league.
The Smoke Eaters conclude their regular season schedule with a home-and-home set against the West Kelowna Warriors beginning on Friday night at Royal LePage Place. The game will be broadcasted live with a free audio link at mixlr.com/trail-smoke-eaters as well as on pay-per-view on HockeyTV.com with the Voice of the Smoke Eaters, Trevor Miller.
