Bulldog’s Brody Claeys had a stellar performance in net on Friday night.
The Alberni Valley Bulldogs defeated Trail at the Cominco Arena on Friday night by the identical score they won by in Alberni Valley two weeks ago, 4-1. In both games the Smokies faced stellar goaltending by the Bulldogs netminders.
The Smokies scored the first goal of the game when Luke Santerno potted his 23rd of the season with assists going to Mitchell Barker and Josh Laframboise. It was all the Smokies could muster for the rest of the night as Alberni Valley scored one goal in the second by Cayden Kraus and two more in the third period by Keith Anderson and Jordan Sandhu.
Goaltender, Brody Claeys of Alberni Valley, named first star of the game, made 33 saves on 34 Smoke Eater shots. Second star of the game was the Bulldog’s Keith Anderson and third star was Smokie’s Luke Santerno. Fortis Energy Player of the Game was Jonas Gordon of the Smokies.
It was a disappointing loss for the Smokies after playing an almost perfect game on Wednesday night at home defeating the league leading Penticton Vees. “Any momentum we had during the game was killed by blatant miscues and we never really turned the page and got going after,” commented Smokie Assistant Coach, Curtis Toneff. “We were off with our passes, and didn’t play with enough jam.” “You have to credit Alberni Valley for playing a perfect road game.” “They certainly didn’t look like a last place team and we weren’t the same team that defeated the Penticton Vees on Wednesday.”
Combined with a Vernon win over West Kelowna on Friday night the Smokies now find themselves in third place, two points back of the second place Vipers.
The Smokies travel to Salmon Arm for a game against the Silverbacks on Saturday night before returning home for a game against Powell River on Sunday afternoon at the Cominco Arena. Game time is 3:00 PM.
