PHOTO: Mike Hockley
The Trail Smoke Eaters open a stretch of four games on the road beginning with a weekend south of the border as they face-off against the Wenatchee Wild on Friday 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 (5-4 Wild/OT) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, November 16th @ Trail Memorial Centre (3-2 Smoke Eaters) (BOXSCORE)
Wednesday, December 19th @ Trail Memorial Centre (5-2 Smoke Eaters) (BOXSCORE)
Friday, January 18th @ Town Toyota Center (7:05 PM)
Saturday, January 19th @ Town Toyota Center (7:05 PM)
The Smoke Eaters and Wild battle in the fifth of their six-game season series with each team earning a pair of victories so far as Trail picked up a 5-2 victory in their last meeting in mid-December at the Trail Memorial Centre. Spencer McLean scored two goals while Braeden Tuck, Carter Jones and Owen Ozar added singles in the Smoke Eaters win. Adam Marcoux turned aside 28 of the 30 shots he faced in the contest for the victory in between the pipes.
Trail comes into the game after a 5-4 loss to the Victoria Grizzlies on Sunday afternoon at the Trail Memorial Centre in a back-and-forth affair. Max Kryski tallied twice in the contest while Tyler Ghirardosi and Kent Johnson scored with the Grizzlies scoring with just over a minute remaining for the win. Adam Marcoux stopped 35 of the 40 shots he faced on the afternoon in his 19th loss of the season.
Smoke Eaters Leading Scorers:
Chase Stevenson (16-25-41)
Carter Jones (12-25-37)
Kent Johnson (16-19-35)
Braeden Tuck (11-21-32)
Trevor Zins (10-22-32)
Smoke Eaters 16-year-old forward Kent Johnson saw his point streak extended to five games with a goal on Sunday afternoon, giving him the most points amongst 2002-born players this season at 35. The University of Michigan commit has scored 5 goals while adding 5 assists for 10 points over the last five games and sits 7th in scoring amongst all rookies this season.
Tyler Ghirardosi also kept his goal scoring streak going after opening the scoring against the Grizzlies on Sunday, pushing that stretch of consecutive games with a goal to four. The Montrose, BC product has tallied 4 goals and 3 assists for 7 points in his last four games, the longest goal scoring streak of the season for the Smoke Eaters.
Trail begins a stretch of four straight games away from home, four of their final six road games of the season with their last game away from the Trail Memorial Centre being an 8-4 victory over the West Kelowna Warriors, which included five power play goals. The Smoke Eaters sit 2nd in the BCHL in power play percentage away from home at 23.0%, second to only Powell River and have generated the second-most opportunities in the league at 113 behind only Surrey.
The Wenatchee Wild come into Friday night’s tilt with a 25-12-2-0 record, holding the 3rd place spot in the Interior Division after a 3-2 shootout loss to the Penticton Vees on Wednesday night at the Town Toyota Center. AJ Hodges and Murphy Stratton paced the Wild to a 2-0 lead in the 2nd period before the Vees scored twice in regulation to tie the game and eventually won in the shootout. Austin Park turned aside 31 of the 33 shots he faced in regulation and overtime before stopping 3 of the 5 shooters in the shootout.
Wild Leading Scorers:
Matt Gosiewski (24-19-43)
Lucas Sowder (11-26-37)
Murphy Stratton (8-28-36)
Josh Arnold (12-20-32)
Christophe Fillion (16-15-31)
The Wild will look to try and turn around what has been a tough start to the month of January that has seen them collect two wins and a shootout loss in a span of six games. Wenatchee is in the midst of an eight-game home stand and hold a 13-5-2-1 record at the Town Toyota Center where they have been stingy this season, holding opponents to 54 goals against south of the border which ranks 4th in the BC Hockey League.
First year Wild forward Christophe Fillion has had a strong start to his Junior hockey career and the Quinnipiac University commit comes into Friday night’s game as one of the hotter Wild players as of late. The Sherbrooke, Quebec native has a pair of goals and a pair of assists for four points in his last five games and has two goals and an assist for three points in four games against the Smoke Eaters this season.
Wenatchee will be a stiff test for a strong Smoke Eaters power play in the game on Friday as the Wild sit 3rd in the BCHL in penalty killing percentage at 84.0% while the power play has been a different story for Wild, who sit 5th in the league in goals for at 158. Wenatchee sits 16th in the league in power play percentage at 17.0% and is the lowest rating they have had since entering the BCHL after finishing 3rd during the 2017/18 season and 1st in the 2016/17 season.
The Smoke Eaters and Wild will drop the puck on the first of their back-to-back set at 7:05 PM from the Town Toyota Center. The game will be broadcasted live with a free audio link at mixlr.com/trail-smoke-eaters as well as pay-per-view on HockeyTV.com beginning at 6:50 PM with the Voice of the Smoke Eaters, Trevor Miller.
