Game Day | CRA at TRA

It’s the BCHL’s first Kootenay clash of the 2025-26 regular season.

The Trail Smoke Eaters host the Cranbrook Bucks to open an eight-game regular season series.
It’s a tale of two teams off to vastly different starts.

The Smokies lead the Interior West Division and overall BCHL standings with an 11-2 record.
The 2-8-3 Bucks, who are last in the Interior West have lost seven games in a row and six straight on the road.

The Smokies had a five-game winning streak snapped with Wednesday’s 4-1 setback to Salmon Arm. Ironically, the Trail troupe has one win and two losses at Cominco Arena and have won all ten games away from their home rink.

It’s the first regular season contest between the two since Cranbrook’s six-game ouster of the favoured Smoke Eaters in the first round of last spring’s playoffs.

Trail won the only pre-season matchup 6-4 in Cranbrook.

The Smokies will be looking for better power play proficiency as they have scored on three of their last 15 advantages.

They also hope giving up four-goals on the last nine penalty kills is a brief blip on units that have been excellent through the first 11 games.

Dylan Lariviere is the Smokies hottest shooter with four goals in the last four games and five over the last six contests. The towering 20-year-old winger leads the team with seven goals.

The Bucks have struggled in the goals-for department averaging about 2.4 a game, while giving up close to five goals against per contest.

Adam Czabi, who is in his third BCHL season, is the Bucks top scorer.

The 20-year-old from Czechia has seven goals and seven assists.

Trail’s new goaltender Brady Smith will don a Smokies jersey for a second time and 19-year-old defenseman Carter Matthews may return after missing Wednesday’s game.

Saturday’s all-Kootenay showdown starts at 7 p.m. Good seats are still available at Tickets.TrailSmokeEaters.com.