It was a night the Smoke Eaters will want to quickly forget, as they failed to repeat their dominant performance from Wednesday as the Penticton Vees shut the Smoke Eaters out 6-0 on Thursday night.
The Smoke Eaters now have a day off before they get a chance to bounce back from this performance. The Smoke Eaters didn’t start the game as well as they would have liked, and the fresh legs of the Vees who were playing their first game in five days seem to aid them in having the extra step all night. Two odd man rushes led to the first two goals for the Vees as Grayson Arnott scored the first goal and the game winner at 6:29 of the first period. Then a break away for Luc Wilson seven minutes later had the home team up 2-0 going to the second.
The Smoke Eaters had their chances, and thought they had their way back into the game when Mitch Wilkie’s shot from the blueline beat Kaeden Lane, however Wakeford, who was pushed into Lane was deemed to not have done enough to avoid the contact with the Vees goaltender leading to the disallowed goal. The Vees who added a goal just two minutes into the second period from Tyler Ho, led 3-0 after two period.
The third is where the Vees really took over and had the Smoke Eaters on their heels. Despite Cayden Hamming doing his best, as he was under siege throughout this game, he finished the night with 44 saves on 50 shots. The Vees added three in the third from Wilson, Fin Williams and Frank Djurasevic. For the Vees Lane picked up his first BCHL shutout stopping all 20 shots the Smoke Eaters put on his net. The Smokies will look to quickly forget this one and look ahead to Saturday night when they take on the Cranbrook Bucks, looking to get back in the win column.
