FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 16th, 2018
TRAIL, B.C. – The Trail Smoke Eaters used a 30-save performance from Adam Marcoux and timely goal scoring to help them to back-to-back wins with a 3-2 victory over the Wenatchee Wild on Friday night at the Trail Memorial Centre.
Marcoux came up large with some big penalty killing stops, including a great save on Josh Arnold on a backdoor try in the 2nd period, while goals from Carter Jones, Mack Byers and Bryce Anderson helped the Smoke Eaters to back-to-back victories since the middle of October with a one-goal win over the Wild.
Carter Jones was first to hit the score sheet for the second straight night, giving the Smoke Eaters a 1-0 lead at the 17:07 mark of the 1st period. Jones walked in on the right wing and snapped a shot past the blocker side from the right face-off circle and beating the blocker side of Wild netminder Cal Sandquist for his 8th goal of the season and a 1-0 lead heading into the 2nd period.
The 2nd frame saw the Wild get back into the hockey game and tie the score at the 1:39 mark and came courtesy of Wenatchee captain Lucas Sowder. After a missed odd man rush by the Smoke Eaters, Sowder found the puck in neutral territory and raced his way into the Trail end, beating a defender before lacing a shot past the glove hand of Smoke Eaters goaltender Adam Marcoux for a 1-1 tie at the 1:39 mark of the middle stanza.
The Smoke Eaters had an answer and took their lead back at the 7:47 mark of the 2nd period on an odd-man rush. Hayden Rowan pushed the puck to the left-wing side for Michael Hodge, who crossed the blue line and sent a pass to the slot for Mack Byers. Byers wristed a shot over the blocker side of Sandquist for his 7th goal of the season and gave Trail a one-goal lead once more heading into the game’s final period.
Wenatchee brought some pressure to begin the 3rd period in an effort to tie the game with Marcoux and the Smoke Eaters standing tall and the eventual game winning tally coming off of the stick of Bryce Anderson at the 5:47 mark of the final period and gave the Smoke Eaters a 3-1 advantage.
Max Kryski flipped the puck on goal from just inside the blue line with Sandquist making a left pad save before Anderson streaked his way down the right side and poked the rebound past the glove side for his 4th goal of the season and gave Trail a 3-1 lead.
PJ Fletcher got the game tied at the 10:34 mark to get the Wild within a goal and cut the deficit to 3-2. Jacob Modry took the initial shot from the left point with plenty of traffic in front of the net and Fletcher getting the last touch on it, tipping it past the glove side of Marcoux to get the game within a goal.
From there, Trail shut the game down and despite Wenatchee firing 12 3rd period shots on, Marcoux and the Smoke Eaters stood tall and kept the lead intact, including getting a post hit from Brandon Koch off the rush down the right side to help the Smoke Eaters to the 3-2 win.
Adam Marcoux was excellent in goal for the Smoke Eaters, making 30 saves on 32 shots for his 8th win of the season while Cal Sandquist turned aside 30 of the 33 shots he faced in the game in his 5th defeat of the season.
FINAL SCORE: 3-2 Smoke Eaters
SHOTS ON GOAL: 33-32 Smoke Eaters
SMOKE EATERS PP: 0/4
SMOKE EATERS PK: 4/4
3 STARS:
1) Adam Marcoux (30 saves on 32 shots)
2) Mack Byers (1-0-1)
3) Lucas Sowder (1-0-1)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game: Corey McCann (0-0-0)
ATTENDANCE: 2,053
The Smoke Eaters (10-10-4-2) make their first trip of the season to the Nicola Valley as they take on the Interior Division leading Merritt Centennials (16-9-0-1) at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 PM with the pre-game show getting underway at 6:50 PM on mixlr.com/trail-smoke-eaters as well as HockeyTV.com with the Voice of the Smoke Eaters, Trevor Miller.
