After a thrilling contest on Friday night at Cominco Arena, the Smoke Eaters and Bucks switch venues to Cranbrook for a rematch tonight.
It’s another opportunity tonight for the the Smoke Eaters to shore things up as they’ll look to learn from their mistakes and build off some of the positives that Friday’s game provided. For 40 minutes it felt like a playoff game between the Smoke Eaters and Bucks with the intensity level cranked up to ten. The Bucks took a 3-2 lead into the third but it very well could have been the other way with the chances the Smoke Eaters created. If anything they’ll want to avoid playing from behind against not just Cranbrook but any team in the BCHL, with the Smoke Eaters not leading once in Friday. Expect a handful of lineup changes tonight from the Smoke Eaters as they look to rotate in some of their forwards who didn’t play Friday.
The Bucks will be thrilled with how Friday’s game finished up. They grabbed a powerplay goal, stayed perfect on the penalty kill and scored 7 times. Ryan’s Donald said prior to the game on Friday that his team has been opportunistic in their goal scoring so far this preseason and that was prevalent against the Smoke Eaters. While the Bucks played a role in forcing turnovers, they made sure they capitalized in the opportunities presented to them. The usual suspects were good again for Cranbrook with Noah Quinn, Luke Pfoh and Kellan Hjartarson in on the action all night. It was also newcomer Ethan Sundar with a two goal performance that was a bright spot for the Bucks.
Catch tonight’s game from Western Financial Place on HockeyTV and on the Smoke Eaters Mixlr. Puck drop is set for 6pm PST from Cranbrook as the Smoke Eaters look to close out their exhibition schedule with a win.
