In order for the Smokies to secure a playoff spot on Saturday night two things had to happen. The first was to defeat the Vernon Vipers and second, the Merritt Centennials had to lose to the Wenatchee Wild. Neither one of these scenarios occurred. The Vipers defeated the Smokies 7-2 and the Centennials defeated the Wild 4-2. As a result, Merritt and Vernon ended up in a tie for fourth place with 51 points each but Vernon won the first tie breaker having more wins than the Centennials. Had Trail defeated Vernon then the Centennials would have secured the final playoff spot.
In front of the largest crowd of the season the Smokies came out and looked like they were going to set the tone of the game by scoring early at 1:16 of the first. Bennett Morrison scored his 3rd goal of the season assisted on by Max Newton. The Vipers answered at 7:41 with a power play goal and from that point on took command of the game scoring three more times before the end of the period. Two of their first period goals were on the power play and special teams played an important role in the game. Vernon went 3 for 6 on the power play while the Smoke Eaters were 0 for 6.
The Vipers added two more goals in the second to take a commanding 6-1 lead going into the third and scored at 6:15 of the third to make it 7-1 before the Smokies scored their second goal at 14:25. Kale Howarth scored with assists going to Evan MacEachern and Cooper Leitch. Unfortunately it was too little too late.
The Smokies fought hard to put themselves into a position to vie for a playoff spot in their last game of the season and it was unfortunate that their game came up short, as they provided the home town fans with some very exciting hockey during the season.
On behalf of the Board members we would like to wish all the graduating players the best of luck in the future and look forward to seeing the returning players next season. We would also like to thank all of our long time fans for their continued support.
Have a great summer and we’ll see you all next season!
