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Trail Smoke Eaters salvage point in Wenatchee, prep for P.G.

Trail Smoke Eaters comeback falls short, lose to Wenatchee Wild in thrilling 5-4 overtime match
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Wenatchee Wild’s Lucas Sowder scores in overtime to lift the Wild to a 5-4 victory at Town Toyota Centre in Wenatchee on Wednesday. Wenatchee Wild photo

The Trail Smoke Eaters earned a valuable point on the road in Wenatchee Wednesday, and return to Cominco ice tonight (Friday) prepped for Prince George.

Wenatchee owned the best home record in the league last season, 24-4-1-0, so leaving Town Toyota Centre with a hard-earned point was a positive outcome for the Trail Smoke Eaters.

“It’s not the easiest place to start for sure,” said Smoke Eaters coach and GM Jeff Tambellini. “It’s a tough rink and I don’t even know if they (Trail) won once down there last year, so we knew it was going to be a tough trip.”

The Wild’s leading scorer Lucas Sowder scored the game winner with 2:49 to play in the 3-on-3 overtime period, as he flew down the left side, broke to the net and beat Trail goalie Adam Marcoux with a quick backhand-forehand deke.

“For me overtime’s a coin flip, it’s about chances and you never know what’s going to happen in OT so tough to give that point away, but love the fact that we came back that hard. But they’re divisional rivals and we have to find a way to get points. We got one, and now Friday’s an even bigger game.”

The win lifted the 8-6-2-0 Wild out of seventh place and into second in a tie with Trail (7-6-3-1) and Penticton (8-5-0-2) in the ridiculously tight Interior Division.

Owen Ozar made a solid impression in his first game of the season. After sitting out the opening 16 games with injury, the 18-year-old Prince Albert native scored twice and added an assist to kick off his inaugural BCHL campaign.

“He (Ozar) has worked so hard the last month,” said Tambellini. “The one thing you can do with a shoulder (injury) is skate every day, and this kid has come and worked so hard off the ice, it’s not a surprise he’s doing what he’s doing. He has such a high skill set that when you put him with Jones and Tuck it seems to really bring out the best in all those guys.”

Trail fought back from a 2-0 deficit, starting with Ozar’s first of the season in his debut. Ozar tucked in a sweet backdoor pass from Braeden Tuck at 10:49 of the second. Carter Jones made a slick move around the defender and slipped the puck to Tuck in the slot, who found Ozar by the left post.

“We got behind 2-0, and re-set our lines middle of the second, and put Tuck, Ozar, and Jones together and they changed the game in two shifts,” said Tambellini.

Two minutes later, Ozar worked the puck to Tuck at the half wall and the Smokies’ captain found defenceman Trevor Zins alone in the high slot and the Saint Michael, Minn. native wired it past Wenatchee goalie Austin Park for his fifth goal and 16th point of the season to tie it at two.

However, Wenatchee took back the lead at 3:51 when Nathan Iannone fired his second of the season past Marcoux. The Wild held a 20-13 edge in shots heading into the third, but Trail battled back again.

Ozar and Tuck worked their magic 3:26 into the third period, with Ozar picking up a quick pass from Tuck and firing it over the glove of Park to even the match at three. Trail then took a 4-3 lead with just over seven minutes remaining on a Hayden Rowan tip-in off a Levi Glasman pass in front.

But 66 seconds later, a speedy Matt Dorsey drove to the net and slipped the puck past the Trail goalie to tie it at 4-4.

Both teams traded chances, and in the final two minutes the Smokies went on the power play. But it was not to be, as the Wild goalie came up big, highlighted by a sprawling save on a Smoke Eater breakaway with 1:21 to play, to force the extra frame.

With Dorsey’s goal, Trail’s record in extra-time falls to 0-4, crucial points lost in a division where second and seventh is separated by two points.

“It’s a problem. Trying to predict it (OT) is the hardest thing, you can have a plan, you can have your set plays and things you want to do, and your rotations, but at the end of the day, it’s a 3-on-3 game on an NHL size sheet … you can control the possession part of it, holding onto the puck, and making the play you want, but, ultimately, you have to take a chance. If the guy makes a save, it goes back on a breakaway to the other end. So that’s probably the most unpredictable part of the game.”

Wenatchee outshot Trail 32-23 and were 0-for-2 on the power play, while the Smokies went 1-for-3.

Trail played a mid-week game on the road for the second straight week, and has earned just one of eight points in the past four games. Trail plays 10-5-0-0 Prince George on Friday and travels to Salmon Arm Saturday to face the Silverbacks (8-6-1-0) for its third match in four days this week.

“It’s way harder to go Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, than just Friday - Saturday,” added Tambellini. “But we’re trying to build a team that has the engine to do it.”

November is the cruelest month of the season for the Smoke Eaters with seven of a season-high 12 games on the road starting with a Vancouver Island swing next week.

“This is the hardest part of the year, when you get to early November, late-October, all the nuances that go on at the start of the year, everyone’s excited. But now the grind starts, every game is a hard night and it comes down to who can do it the most and on a consistent basis.

“This is time for us to really dig in and push. This is where the season really begins.”

Trail faces off against Prince George at 7 p.m. tonight at the Cominco Arena.



Jim Bailey

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