The Trail Smoke Eaters powered their way to a 6-3 victory over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Friday at the Cominco Arena.
Levi Glasman scored twice, d-man Diarmad Dimurro had a three-point night and Adam Marcoux stopped 27 shots as Trail won their second straight game to put them in top spot in the Interior Division.
Kyle Budvardson set up the winning goal with a heads-up breakaway pass from his own end to a streaking Sean Donaldson, who stepped over the blue line and, just as the Silverbacks d-man caught him, fed Byers on the right wing. The Long Lake, Minn. native waited then fired it over the tender’s glove for a 4-2 lead with a minute to play in the period, netting his second goal of the season.
Trail, looking for its first home win of the campaign, pressured Salmon Arm from the opening face off, and Hayden Rowan netted his third of the season finishing a pass from Trevor Zins just three minutes in to give Trail a 1-0 lead.
However, Salmon Arm replied 34 seconds later when Tyson Gayfer punched in a bad bounce off the backboard, and Hudson Schandor netted a power-play goal at 11:06 to put the Gorillas up 2-1.
The Smoke Eaters tied it when Kent Johnson circled behind the net, drawing the goalie off his post, then made a slick backhand pass to a trailing Levi Glasman who fired it into the open side.
A steady stream of Silverbacks to the penalty box helped Trail take a 3-2 lead on a Carter Jones power-play goal. Jones took a feed from Jeremy Smith at the left face off dot, fed Mack Byers in the slot, who gave it right back to Jones, and the Bemidji State commit wired it past Silverbacks goalie Devin Chapman.
Trail held a 22-20 edge in shots through two periods with Marcoux steady in the Smoke Eaters net. Yet, penalty trouble early in the third gave the ‘Backs a two-man advantage, and the visitors didn’t take long to capitalize. After Braeden Tuck was sent off for interference, S.A.’s Akito Hirose won the face off back to Andy Stevens who fed Trevor Adams at the left hash mark, and Adams one-timed it short side on Marcoux to cut the lead to 4-3.
Undaunted, the Smoke Eaters fired back with a short-handed goal when Bryce Anderson banked a puck off the wall to Levi Glasman breaking up the left wing, and the Red Deer native went low glove side to restore the two-goal lead.
Trevor Zins added an insurance marker with 9:15 left to play, jumping up in the rush and banging in a Donaldson pass on the doorstep for the 6-3 final. The Smoke Eater d-man and St. Michael, Minn. native has had an incredible start scoring twice and adding three assists in three games, while providing a solid presence on the back end.
Glasman, with two goals, was the games first star, Carter Jones (1G, 1A) earned second star and Zins (1G, 1A) was the third star. Dimurro, with three helpers, was the Energy Player of the Game, as Trail outshot Salmon Arm 30-28 and went 3-for-9 on the power play, while Salmon Arm was 1-for-7.
Trail travels to Vernon to take on the Vipers at the Snake Pit tonight at 7 p.m.