OCTOBER 5th, 2018
POWELL RIVER, B.C. – The Trail Smoke Eaters opened up their three-game Island road trip with Adam Marcoux making 31 saves and a strong defensive effort helping them to a 3-1 victory over the Powell River Kings on Friday night at the Hap Parker Arena.
The Smoke Eaters started the game with plenty of jump and it showed on the scoreboard as they took a 1-0 lead just 6:35 into the opening frame. Carter Jones won an offensive zone face-off ahead in the right face-off circle and centered a pass for Blake Sidoni, who tapped the puck by the blocker side of Kings netminder Hayden Missler for his 1st goal of the season and a 1-0 Trail advantage.
Sean Donaldson received a checking from behind minor penalty and a game misconduct that put the Smoke Eaters short to 11 forwards for the remainder of the game but found a way to increase their lead by a pair at the 12:08 mark of the opening period of play.
Tyler Ghirardosi found a loose puck in the slot and passed to the bottom of the left face-off circle for an open Sidoni, who took the puck on his forehand and spun a pass to the edge of the circle to Jones as he made no mistake, slapping the puck past Missler on his glove side for his 2nd goal of the season and a 2-0 Smoke Eaters advantage.
Trail didn’t give up much in the opening period, surrendering just seven shots, all of which were turned aside by Adam Marcoux while the Smoke Eaters threw ten shots toward the Powell River net where Missler made eight saves.
There was no scoring in the 2nd period although the chances did come, more so later in the period as Powell River upped the ante with a power play opportunity that created an abundance of shots but Marcoux turned them aside to keep 11 pucks out of the net in the middle frame as Trail held their 2-0 lead into the 3rd period.
Marcoux was again terrific in the early part of the 3rd period with Powell River earning a power play just moments into the period and turned aside all of the first 30 shots he faced in the game before the Kings cracked the scoresheet on a man advantage late in the final period.
Matt Fawcett swung a pass to the bottom of the left face-off circle for Ryan Brushett, who spotted an open Ben Berard backdoor and hit him with a pass. Berard wristed a shot past the glove side of Marcoux to get the Kings on the board with the power play marker and cut the Trail lead to 2-1 at the 14:58 mark.
Trail kept Powell River at bay for the later part of the 3rd period, allowing just one shot after the goal and capping off the scoring with 43 seconds remaining in the game with Braeden Tuck banking a puck off the right-wing boards and into the empty goal for his 6th goal of the season and finished off a 3-1 win for the Smoke Eaters.
Adam Marcoux stopped 31 of the 32 shots he faced in the game for his 5th win of the season while Hayden Missler turned aside 20 of the 22 shots thrown his way in his 2nd loss of the season.
FINAL SCORE: 3-1 Smoke Eaters
SHOTS ON GOAL: 32-22 Kings
SMOKE EATERS PP: 0/4
SMOKE EATERS PK: 4/5
3 STARS:
1) Adam Marcoux (31 saves on 32 shots)
2) Blake Sidoni (1-1-2)
3) Carter Jones (1-1-2)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Ben Berard (1-0-1)
The Smoke Eaters (5-3-0-1) continue on their three-game Island road swing as they head to Port Alberni to face-off against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (3-6-0-0) at the Weyerhaeuser Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM with the pre-game show going at 6:50 PM on mixlr.com/trail-smoke-eaters as well as HockeyTV.com with the Voice of the Smoke Eaters, Trevor Miller.
