Game Day! | TRA at WK
Friday night’s Smoke Eaters win was 8-standing!
In addition to the 8-2 victory over the Warriors, the 1,505 Cominco Arena fans got to see a highlight reel goal by Jason Stefanek.
His dirty-dangle in tight quarters through the West Kelowna defense was finished by a dastardly deke and the backhand burial of the biscuit past beleaguered goalie Ayo Ogini late in the first period, to give Trail a 4-0 lead after one period, which ended a tough evening for Ogini on his 18th birthday.
That followed the shorthanded top-corner snipe by Jack Ziliotto who cruised in alone after stealing the puck at centre-ice. It was his first of two goals on the night.
Dylan Lariviere scored his first goal as a Smoke Eater on a power play, after Christian Kim connected on his first of the season just past the one-minute mark, on a tantalizing tic-tac-toe tally set up by Stefanek and Attila Lippai.
The onslaught continued early in the second period when captain Ridge Dawson delivered his first goal of the season from in close on relief goaltender Zack Ferris.
An altercation ensued after Trail’s Judah Makway tapped in a Dawson rebound to give the Smokies a 6-1 lead about 11-minutes into the middle frame. Four players including Dawson and Makway were given ten-minute misconducts for not going to the players bench while Smokie Evan Sundar and West Kelowna’s Logan Flint were grappling.
Rookie Cash Carter rounded out the Trail scoring with a forehand-backhand breakaway move on Ferris late in the second period.
Trail led 8-1 after two periods.
Sam Ledrew scored in his Warriors debut after starting the season in the USHL. Frankie D’Ancona got the other West Kelowna goal, the lone tally of the third period.
Ziliotto, who was denied a hat-trick goal on another breakaway, added an assist, while Sundar assisted on three and now has a team-leading nine points.
Teagan Kendrick picked up his fourth win of the season making 22 saves.
The Smokies were 1-for-4 on the power play and killed off 2-of-3 Warriors advantages.
Trail is now the highest scoring team in the BCHL with 31 goals and take a 4-1-1 record into tonight’s (Saturday’s) wrapper of the home-and-home series in West Kelowna, with the Warriors now at 2-2-1 on the season.
It starts at 7 o’clock on Mixlr and FloHockey.