The Trail Smoke Eaters stepped up on Sunday and finished their home season with a dominant 5-1 victory over the Cranbrook Bucks.
The Smoke Eaters were without top scorer Mathieu Cobetto-Roy, veteran forwards Ethan Mann and Adam Parsons and goalie Teagan Kendrick for another weekend, but bounced back from a 3-1 loss on Friday against the West Kelowna Warriors to get back on the winning track and improve their record to 26-20-6-0.
“We definitely needed it,” said Smoke Eaters head coach and GM Tim Fragle. “The last three games were exactly like that, 1-1, 2-1 middle of the second and we found a way to lose the previous three, but today we found another level in our game and we really pulled away there in the third period.”
Jason Stefanek scored the game winner on an incredible individual effort. With the game tied at 1-1, the Yorba Linda, Calif. product blocked a shot at the point, rolled over the defender and broke in all alone, beating Bucks goalie with a slick deke for a 2-1 lead with 33 seconds to play in the middle frame.
With two games remaining in the regular season, the Smoke Eaters will finish the season in fifth place of the Interior Conference and will likely play the 32-19-1-0 Vernon Vipers, who sit in fourth, four points behind the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
After a scoreless first period, Smokies forward Kailus Green capitalized on a turnover in the Cranbrook end and wired a shot glove side, 2:46 into the middle frame.
The Bucks replied 38 seconds later, when Patrick Murphy converted a backdoor pass from Jacob Fletcher to tie it.
Trail goalie Ryan Parker made several stellar saves including a sprawling pad save late in the second period to keep Cranbrook from taking the lead.
Trail and Cranbrook battled back and forth through the first half of the final frame, with both goalies coming up big.
But it was Trail product Nathan Dominici who put the Smoke Eaters up 3-1 after deflecting a point shot from Adam Barone midway through the third.
Two minutes later, Judah Makway sent Max Potvin into the Bucks zone and the Sudbury product used the defender as a screen, then wired a shot top shelf for a 4-1 Smokies lead at 8:09.
Potvin notched his second on the night and 11th on the season, finishing a highlight reel three-way passing play with Gryphon Bucci and Makway to make the final 5-1 with just over five minutes to play.
“I thought off the rush we were coming in with a lot of speed, and those quick shots through screens, those are tough shots for goalies. I tell our guys all the time that we have a bad habit of forcing plays on offence, there’s nothing more threatening than wide speed and a shot off the rush, and things can happen.”
Trail fired 36 shots at Bucks goalie Braedyn McIntosh while Smoke Eaters Parker stopped 30 shots, with each team going 0-for-2 on the power play.
With the win, the Smoke Eaters take the season series over Cranbrook with a 5-2-2-0 record.
The win on Cominco ice also improves the Smoke Eaters home record to 16-8-3-0 at the Trail Memorial Centre, thanks to a much improved record in the second half of the season.
“Our game as a whole has been much better,” said Fragle. “That last loss to Cranbrook at home was a real wake up call, we hadn’t had a game like that in months, but then found a way to lose the next one. So a little bit of adversity here, and yes we are shorthanded, but you still have to find a way to win hockey games. Every team has injuries, and we’re going to have injuries in the playoffs, so the guys have to step up.”
On Friday, the Warriors skated to a 3-1 win at the Cominco Arena over a shorthanded Smoke Eaters team.
West Kelowna took a 1-0 first period lead on a goal from Owen Drury, despite Trail holding a 13-8 shot advantage.
The Warriors scored two more in the second on goals from Sean Keohane and Jack Pridham for a 3-0 lead heading into the third period.
Smoke Eaters forward Josh Schenk ruined the shut-out bid for Rorke Applebee with his 11th of the season and assists to Adam Marshall and Christian Kim.
The Smoke Eaters outshot the Warriors 27-25 and were 0-for-4 on the power play, and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Fragle says that Kendrick will be back between the pipes this weekend following a three-game suspension, and is hopeful for the return of Cobetto-Roy, Parsons, and Mann, noting that the absence of their top players creates some big holes in the line up, but also provides more ice time for other players.
“Guys that stepped up like Judah Makway, the line of Pierce, Green, and Dominici were good the last couple games, they got more opportunity and that’s what you want to see.”
Trail is on the road for its final two games of the season against Penticton Vees Friday, March 29 and will play Salmon Arm Silverbacks for its final match on Saturday, March 30 at 7 p.m.; a good test for the first round of playoffs.
“With two tough games next weekend on the road, and we are going to have to start (playoffs) on the road, so we have to learn how to play good road hockey.
“So playing good road hockey is going to be the message this weekend whoever is in the line up,” added Fragle.