DYMENT NAMED FIRST STAR IN WIN OVER SALMON ARM
In almost a complete reversible of the game played in Trail on Friday night the Smokies turned the table on Salmon Arm and defeated them 5-2 on Saturday night in the second game of the home and home series.
The first period ended in a 1-1 tie as Josh Latta opened the scoring for the Backs at 7:59. Trail evened the score with a power play goal at 14:57 when Josh Laframboise scored his 15th of the season assisted on by Jeremy Lucchini.
There was no scoring in an evenly played second period as each team fired 11 shots on net.
At 6:47 of the third Josh Laframboise scored his 16th goal of the season with the assist going to Tyson Slater. At 7:03 Luke Santerno potted his 24th of the year on a feed from Kale Howarth and Braeden Tuck. Silverback’s Carter Cochrane narrowed the Smokies lead to 3-2 when he scored at the 11:56 mark. Mitchell Barker restored Trail’s two goal lead at 13:25 with Ryan Moon and Jeremy Lucchini earning assists on the play. Kale Howarth scored his 24th of the season into an empty net at 19:49 to seal the win for the Smokies.
Smoke Eater assistant coach, Curtis Toneff, commented, “It was a bit of a chess match in the first two periods.” “In the third we made a couple high end plays that opened the ice up for us.” “Our PK and goaltending was exceptional and a few guys got the monkey off there backs.”
One of those players that got the monkey off his back was Luke Santerno. In late November and early December Santerno was tearing up the league and sat in a solid third in league scoring, having scored 20 points in 20 games. Since then his scoring touch had gone cold and has gone 9 games without a goal. Hopefully his goal last night in Salmon Arm, which proved to be the winner, will be a return to his earlier scoring ways. Josh Laframboise has had an eight game drought but scored two last night.
Laframboise celebrating a goal and Santerno scoring to make it 3-1.
With his 40 saves on the night, Smokies Zach Dyment, was named first star of the game. Josh Laframboise of the Smokies was named second star with 2 goals. The Backs, Carter Cochrane, was named third star. Fortis Energy Player of the Game was the Silverbacks Elijiah Barriga.
Following up on the hit on the Smokie’s Mitch Stapley in Trail on Friday night, after reviewing the video of the incident, the league discipline committee handed Marcus Mitchell of Salmon Arm a major penalty for a blow to the head. Mitchell was also handed a further 4 game suspension. Unfortunately, Stapley will miss many more games as he suffered a broken jaw and a concussion on the hit.
The Smokies next home game is on Friday January 13 against Langley. Game time is 7:30 PM at the Cominco Arena. They host the Surrey Eagles on Saturday night. Game time on Saturday is 7:00 PM.
