The Smoke Eaters win streak came to an end on Sunday afternoon, despite the team leaving it all out on the ice the Victoria Grizzlies head home with a 6-2 win over Trail.
The Smoke Eaters had the Grizzlies skating in circles inside and turning over the puck multiple times inside the first three minutes of the games. However in just his second start for the Grizzlies, Cole Schwebius held his team in it early. The Grizzlies would build off that and force some strong goaltending out of Bailey Monteith, who if not for his efforts, would have seen the Smoke Eaters down by more than just one after the first with the Grizzlies outshooting the Smoke Eaters 18-6. Grizzlies captain Ellis Rickwood would open the scoring on the night in what would be his first of three goals on the night.
The real wake up call for the Smoke Eaters came after Kalen Szeto, who played for Trail during the BCHL pod season last year, scored two inside the first two minutes of the second period. Now the third goal against would prove to be to much for the Smoke Eaters to overcome but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. From the time Szeto made it 3-0 to the end of the game the Smoke Eaters would outshoot the Grizzlies 45-14. The push was on but the Grizzlies held firm and took a 3-0 lead to the third period.
Victoria would really put this game out of reach, or so they thought with the 4-0 go ahead goal by Matthew Wood early in the third, as the teams played 3-on-3 due to a succession of penalties. The Smoke Eaters then answered and continued to empty out their arsenal as Coalson Wolford got the Smoke Eaters on the board with a powerplay goal just two minutes into the third and 57 seconds after the Grizzlies made it 4-0
On the same major powerplay the Smoke Eaters had multiple chances including a few posts but would score through Quinn Disher, who added his fifth of the year late in the man advantage to cut the lead to just two.
That would be the only two goals the Smoke Eaters could muster, despite outshooting the Grizzlies 26-5 in the third. The Grizzlies added two more, one an empty net, to get the 6-2 win. The Smoke Eaters three game win streak and 6 game home winning streak comes to an end. They’ll look to start a new winning streak when they hit the road starting on Friday, when they head to Coquitlam to play the Express.
