The Trail Smoke Eater will make their final trip of the regular season to Vernon to take on the Vipers on Sunday afternoon.
Season series verse Vernon:
October 19th @ Kal Tire Place 3-2 OTL (BOXSCORE)
November 8th @ Trail Memorial Centre 5-2 W (BOXSCORE)
November 9th @ Trail Memorial Centre 3-2W (BOXSCORE)
December 18th @ Kal Tire Place 4-1W (BOXSCORE)
January 18th @ Trail Memorial Centre 5-1W (BOXSCORE)
February 9th @ Kal Tire Place 2pm
The Smoke Eaters are coming off a thrilling 5-4 win on Friday night where they turned around two separate two goal deficits to win the game. It wasn’t the Smoke Eater best start but they made up for it with a dominant third period. The start today will have to be better with a 2pm start against the Vipers, a team the Smoke Eaters have had plenty of success against. Going 4-0-1 against Vernon this season the Smokies have picked up points in all five meetings while winning the last four. The Smoke Eaters will look to improve on their record of 14-2-1 over their last 17 games while they look to push their point streak to nine games (8-0-0-1). Meanwhile Kent Johnson continues to get closer to the century mark as he sits on 93 points on the season.
Last ten games: 8-1-0-1
Smoke Eaters leading scores:
Johnson (39-54-93)
Ozar (22-38-60)
Colella (22-37-59)
Lapointe (20-33-53)
DiMurro (6-28-34)
The Vipers, with a playoff spot confirmed, are coming off a loss on Friday night to the Nanaimo Clippers. The Vipers struck first just 57 second into the game before the Clippers answered 22 seconds later and stretched their lead to 3-1. The Vipers got one in the third but couldn’t complete the comeback. Vernon is in a tight race in the middle of the Interior division with just two points separating 3rd from 5th, the difference between home ice in the first round. The Vipers wrap up the season with 6 games all against the Interior. After Sunday’s game with the Smoke Eaters they’ll play Wenatchee and Merritt once each, then three games against West Kelowna. Today the Vipers will look to replicate their early start from Friday while not giving up a tying goal seconds later.
Last ten games: 4-5-1-0
Vipers leading scorers:
Kowalski (25-28-53)
Marritt (15-24-39)
Holt (17-21-38)
Bulawka (18-12-30)
Tanaka-Campbell (7-19-26)
It’s the final regular season meeting as the Vipers look to get back in the win column, while the Smoke Eaters will look for another two points against their own division. Puck drop is at 2pm from Kal Tire Place. As always you can catch the game starting at 1:50pm on HockeyTV or Mixlr with Ben Phillips.
