PHOTO: Mike Hockley
OCTOBER 13th, 2018
TRAIL, B.C. – The Trail Smoke Eaters used a four-goal 1st period to lift them to back-to-back wins on home ice as they hung on for a 4-3 victory over the Powell River Kings on Saturday night at the Trail Memorial Centre.
Sean Donaldson’s first career BCHL goal highlighted a strong opening frame from the home side, collecting a four-goal lead before the Kings battled their way from behind and fell just short in a comeback bid as the Smoke Eaters skated away with the narrow one-goal victory.
A fast-paced opening period saw the Smoke Eaters jump ahead at the 5:17 mark of the first frame as Tyler Ghirardosi found the back of the net for the second straight game. Ghirardosi worked the puck free from a scrum in the right corner and pushed his way to the goal before sliding the puck through the legs of Kings goaltender Mitch Adamyk for the 1-0 advantage.
The bulk of the period went without any scoring while the Kings lost their captain, Ben Berard, after he took a hard hit from Trevor Zins before Trail added to the lead and came in the way of a first career BCHL tally from Sean Donaldson.
The rookie forward took a drop pass from Bryce Anderson on the right wing and worked his way to the slot before letting a shot go over the glove side of Adamyk for his first career marker and gave Trail a 2-0 lead at the 15:59 mark of the opening frame.
Jeremy Smith added to the lead later in the frame at the 18:13 mark to push the home team’s advantage to three goals and came courtesy of a power play. Levi Glasman spotted Smith cutting to the goal from the glove side and fired a pass which Smith chipped in on the blocker side for his 4th goal of the season and a 3-0 lead.
Just 27 seconds later, Trevor Zins capped off the scoring frenzy for the Smoke Eaters in the opening 20 minutes as he tucked home his 4th goal of the season. Zins knocked down a Donaldson pass that was waist high and rushed on the blocker side before sliding it past Adamyk for the four-goal advantage heading into the dressing room.
Powell River would open the second period with a power play and got themselves back in the game with a power play marker of their own at the 2:17 mark of the 2nd period. Ryan Pouliot let a point shot go through traffic and beat Smoke Eaters netminder Tanner Marshall on the blocker side and cut the deficit to 4-1.
The Kings continued to press and made it a two-goal game with Ben Thomas finding the back of the net at the 4:20 mark of the middle stanza. Thomas worked his way from the left to right and outwaited Marshall to beat him on the blocker side to make it a 4-2 score early into the middle stanza.
The 2nd period remained pretty even after that with both teams getting some good looks and also saw a goaltending change for the Kings as Hayden Missler entered the game in relief of Adamyk and made 11 saves in the middle frame. Marshall turned aside 9 of the 10 shots he faced in the period.
The Kings worked to get the game on even terms in the final period and got one goal closer with a Perry Winfree goal at the 7:37 mark of the 3rd period. The puck was thrown to the front of the net and Winfree found it in the scramble and pushed the puck past Marshall’s glove side to cut the lead to one goal at 4-3.
The Smoke Eaters held their ground as the Kings forced 10 shots toward the goal with Marshall and the defense standing tall and we’re able to hang onto a 4-3 victory for their second win in a row.
Tanner Marshall turned aside 24 of the 27 shots he faced in the game for his 2nd win of the season while Mitch Adamyk started the night, surrendering 4 goals on 10 shots and losing his 4th game of the season before Hayden Missler came on in relief in the 2nd period and stopped all of the 14 shots he faced.
FINAL SCORE: 4-3 Smoke Eaters
SHOTS ON GOAL: 28-27 Smoke Eaters
SMOKE EATERS PP: 1/4
SMOKE EATERS PK: 3/4
3 STARS:
1) Sean Donaldson (1-1-2)
2) Ben Thomas (1-1-2)
3) Diarmad DiMurro (0-1-1)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Tanner Marshall (24 saves on 27 shots)
The Smoke Eaters (7-3-1-2) hit the road for a big divisional matchup to begin a three-game week as they head to Kal Tire Place to take on the Vernon Vipers (4-4-0-3) on Wednesday night. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM with the pre-game show airing at 6:50 PM on mixlr.com/trail-smoke-eaters as well as HockeyTV.com with the Voice of the Smoke Eaters, Trevor Miller.
