PHOTO: Tami Quan Photography
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 20th, 2018
TRAIL, B.C. – The Trail Smoke Eaters surrendered four unanswered goals and dropped their third straight game as they fell by a 4-3 score to the West Kelowna Warriors on Saturday night at the Trail Memorial Centre.
Mike Hardman collected a pair of goals and an assist for a three point game while a late two-man advantage proved to be the turning point for the Warriors as the they scored twice in the 3rd period and a 33-save performance from Connor Hopkins saw Trail fall by a 4-3 score.
For the first time in two games, the Smoke Eaters were able to open the scoring in the game and came courtesy of a turnover inside the Warriors zone. The puck was lost in the offensive end as Mack Byers was the beneficiary, turning and flinging a shot through the legs of Warriors netminder Connor Hopkins for his 5th goal of the season and to give Trail a 1-0 lead at the 10:44 mark of the opening period.
The Smoke Eaters opened up a two-goal lead at the 17:16 mark of the opening period as the pair of newcomers for Trail found their way on the scoresheet. Layne Sniher played the puck into the left-wing corner as Max Kryski forced a turnover down low and centered for Bryce Anderson, who move to his forehand and slid home his 1st goal of the season and gave Trail a 2-0 lead heading into the 2nd period of play after a strong showing in the opening frame.
Trail started the period with some terrific opportunities but couldn’t find the back of the net and it was West Kelowna who came back and got within a goal at the 8:30 mark of the 2nd period as Bennett Norlin rushed down the right wing and threw a shot through the legs of Smoke Eaters goaltender Tanner Marshall to cut the deficit to one goal and make it a 2-1 Trail lead.
The home side continued to press but couldn’t break through Hopkins and at the 16:19 mark of the middle stanza, Mike Hardman tied the game for West Kelowna. A turnover inside the Trail zone led to Eric Olson dropping a pass for Hardman at the edge of the left face-off circle as he wired a shot past the glove side of Marshall and knotted the game up 2-2 heading into the 3rd period.
The third period didn’t see much in the way of scoring chances in the opening 10 minutes until the Smoke Eaters got in a bit of penalty trouble and the Warriors took advantage. Mike Hardman blasted a one-time feed from Wyatt Head past the glove side of Marshall for his 2nd of the game on a 5-on-3 power play that gave the Warriors their first lead of the game at the 11:20 mark by a 3-2 score.
Just 61 seconds later, the Warriors doubled their lead while still on the power play as Willie Reim laced a shot through traffic past the glove of Marshall and extended the West Kelowna lead to 4-2 at the 12:21 mark of the 3rd period.
Trail began to press to get the game on even terms and got one step closer as Kent Johnson cut the deficit in half with his 8th goal of the season at the 16:02 mark of the 3rd period. Trevor Zins had his right point shot stopped by Hopkins with the rebound spilling out to the glove side as Johnson buried and made it a 4-3 score in favour of the Warriors.
The Smoke Eaters worked to try and tie the game late but could not find the equalizer as they dropped their third game in a row, this by a 4-3 score to the Warriors.
Tanner Marshall turned aside 19 of the 23 shots he faced in the game in his 2nd loss of the season while Connor Hopkins kicked aside 33 of the 36 shots thrown his way for his 6th victory of the season.
FINAL SCORE: 4-3 Warriors
SHOTS ON GOAL: 36-23 Smoke Eaters
SMOKE EATERS PP: 1/3
SMOKE EATERS PK: 2/4
3 STARS:
1) Mike Hardman (2-1-3)
2) Mack Byers (1-0-1)
3) Connor Hopkins (33 saves on 36 shots)
ATTENDANCE: 1,802
The Smoke Eaters (7-6-2-1) head back out on the road to start another three-game week as they pay a visit south of the border to face-off against the Wenatchee Wild (7-6-2-0) on Wednesday night at the Town Toyota Center. Puck drop is slated for 6:00 PM with the pre-game show getting underway at 5:50 PM on mixlr.com/trail-smoke-eaters as well as HockeyTV.com with the Voice of the Smoke Eaters, Trevor Miller.
