Armour Scoring First of Two
After being outshot 21-6 over the first two periods and down 2-0 going into the third, the Smokies coachng staff must have used “Let’s Win One for The Gipper Speech” to motivate the team to a 3-2 come from behind win over the Penticton Vees at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton on Wednesday night. Curtis Toneff, assistant coach for the Smokies, commented, “With some belief and a sense of urgency right out of the blocks in the third, it goes to show momentum is a powerful thing.” “It was our best period of the year and we can look back on this game to help us moving forward.”
In the first period Ryley Risling with his 13th goal of the season put the Vees up 1-0 at the at the 15:26 mark. The Vees outshot the Smokies in the first by a margin of 11-3.
Penticton’s Mitch Meek increased the Vees lead to 2-0 at 8:17 of the second while they outshot the Smokies 10-3.
The Vees dominated in the first two periods with the Smokie’s, Linden Marshall, making 19 saves to give Trail a chance for what was a sensational comeback win.
In the third period where the Smokies outshot the Vees 19-5, Ross Armour started the comeback when he scored his 10th goal of the year at 8:24 on a feed from Josh Lamframboise and Kyle Chernenkoff. Less than a minute later at 9:06 Spencer McLean potted his 9th of the season to tie the game at 2 with the assist going to Blaine Caton and Andre Ghantous. At 17:59 Ross Armour scored his second goal of the game and his 11th on the season which proved to be the comeback winning goal. Josh Laframboise and Connor Brown Maloski assisted on the marker.
Celebrating Winning Goal
For his two goals, Ross Armour was named first star of the game, Duncan Campbell of the Vees was named second star and Mitch Meek also of the Vees was named third star. Fortis Energy Player of the Game was the Vee’s Taylor Sanheim.
The last time the Smokies won a game in Penticton was March 1, 2013 when Valik Chichkin scored in O/T to keep Trail’s slim playoff chance alive. This was the season in which the Smokies played Penticton in the their last four games of the season, a glitch in scheduling. The Smokies won 3 of 4 games but Salmon Arm was on a tear and edged out Trail for the playoff position. Ironically the score in that 2013 win was also 3-2.
The Smokies return home on Friday for a tilt with Salmon Arm in the first of a home and home series with the Silverbacks. Game time on Friday is 7:30 PM at the Cominco Arena.
