The Smoke Eaters Island/Mainland road trip on the weekend started on a high note on Thursday defeating the Grizzlies 3-2 in Victoria. Kienan Scott, who tallied 4 goals on the weekend, scored the winner in Victoria at 8:31 of the third period when he scored a highlight reel goal on Mitchell Benson of the Grizzlies. Scott picked up the puck just outside of the Trail blueline and beat a Grizzlie defender to score on the breakaway chance. It was Scott’s first game after returning from an injury. Victoria took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Cole Pickup and Keyvan Mokhtari. The Smokies fought back in the seond period when Kale Howarth scored at 10:15 with assists going to Ross Armour and Max Newton. Nick Holloran knotted the game at 2 when he scored at 12:45. Evan MacEachern and Max Newton drew assists on the goal. The game was an evenly played match with Victoria holding a slight edge in shots 37-36. Kale Howarth of the Smokies was named first star of the game, Smoke Eater Bailey Macburnie was named second star and Brayden Gelsinger of the Grizzlies was named third star. It was Trai’s second straight win over the Grizzlies a they defeated them 2-1 in Trail last Sunday. Nick Deshenes, Smokies Coach/Gm said, “we had a solid comeback effort from 2-0 to a 3-2 win. “Can’t downplay Bailey MacBurnie’s efforts to keep this game in check.”
On Friday night, in Nanaimo, it was a complete reversal from Thursday’s game in Victoria. Trail wasn’t in the game from the start and at one point in the first period were being outshot 11-0. Shots in the first period were 17-5 in favour of Nanaimo as they took a 3-1 lead into the second period. Nanaimo scored two goals 34 seconds apart in the first period to take a 2-0 lead when Kienan Scott scored his second goal of the weekend at 16:08 on a power play. Cooper Leitch and Kyle Star assisted on the goal. Despite outshooting Nanaimo in the second period 11-6 the Clippers scored the only goal of the period to take a 4-1 lead. It was a shorthanded goal. It was all Nanaimo in the third as they outshot Trail 20-11 and ourscoring them 3-1. Kyle Star of the Smokies scored Trail’s second goal of the game on a power play at 14:43 of the period on a feed from Ross Armour. The Clippers took all three stars in the game with Sheldon Rempal, Chris Dodero and Corey Renwick being named 1st, 2nd and 3rd star respectively. Despite the score, goaltender Linden Marshall, of the Smoies had a strong game. The 7-2 score could have been much worse had he not played as well as he did. Coach Deshcenes said, “Nanaimo is a strong team and we came into that game unprepared and we were on our heels from the start.”
On Saturday evening the Smoke Eaters faced the Langley Rivermen in Langley for their third game in as many nights. It was a much better game for the Smoke Eaters as they led 1-0 after one period and 2-1 after 2 periods. Kienan Scott kept up his scoring ways for the weekend when he scored his third goal of the weekend at 7:13 of the first with the lone assist going to Max Newton. Langley tied the game at 4:09 of the second period on a goal by Troy Ring. The Smokies pulled ahead 2-1 at 16:39 of the second when Kienan Scott potted his fourth goal of the weekend on a feed from Connor Brown-Maloski. In the third period Langley tied the game at 1:28 on a goal by William Campion and then took a 3-2 lead at 6:32 of the period. Trail pulled their goaltender late in the game but Langley scored an empty net goal at 19:32 of the period on an unassisted goal by Torrin White. First star of the game went to Justin Szeto of Langley. Second star of the game was Kienan Scott with two goals on the night. Troy Ring of the Rivermen was named third star. In the Langley game, Coach Deschenes, quoted, “We carried the play for 40 minutes. Unfortunately we were unable to maintain that effort level and Langley was able to capitalize on a couple of opportunities that gave them the win.”
After the weekend games Trail is 7 points behind the Vernon Vipers who are in fourth place. The Smokies have 2 games in hand. Trail travels to to Wenatchee and Penticton on Friday and Saturday respectively. They then face West Kelowna next Tuesday before returning home for a December 4 game against Alberni and then Wenatchee on Saturday December 5. Both home games are at the Cominco Arena with game times at 7:30 PM.
