The Trail Smoke Eaters couldn’t find their scoring touch in a 3-0 shut-out loss to the Prince George Spruce Kings Saturday.
The loss comes 24 hours after a long road trip and an 8-7 win on Friday versus Prince George. Trail was snake bitten on Saturday, and shorthanded from a bug that was reportedly going around, leaving players like Josh Schenk and Jack Kennedy out of the line up.
Spruce Kings newly acquired goalie Charlie Zolin stopped 35 shots for his first win and shutout in just his second game for the P.G. Linden Makow scored the game winner midway through the first period for a 1-0 lead.
With the loss, Trail remains in fifth place at .500 with an 11-11-6-0 record midway through the season, while Prince George improves to 9-15-3-0 and remain in eighth in the Interior Conference.
Tristan Taylor notched his first of the campaign to make it 2-0 at 10:09 of the second, and Owen Goodbrand made the final 3-0 with an empty netter with 23 seconds remaining. Trail peppered Zolin in the third, firing 17 shots at the P.G. net but could not capitalize.
Trail goalie Teagan Kendrick stopped 26 shots, as each team went 0-for-4 on the power play.
In Friday’s high-scoring victory, Trail forward Gryphon Bucci scored the game winner with nine minutes left in the third period to give the Smoke Eaters an 8-6 lead.
Bucci took a centering pass from Chase Stefanek, and beat Prince George goalie Ryan Sanborn, who faced his first shot after starting goalie Zolin was pulled.
The Spruce Kings jumped out to a 2-1 first period lead, but goals from Adam Parsons and Mathieu Cobetto-Roy made it 3-2 Trail 2:43 into the middle frame.
Prince George replied with two power play goals, before Chase Stefanek tied it at four with his own power play marker.
The Spruce Kings took a 5-4 lead into the third, with Skogen Schrott scoring with 10 seconds left in the second.
Kai Greaves put the home team up two, before the Smoke Eaters stormed back with four straight from Cobetto-Roy, two from Jason Stefanek, and the winner from Bucci for an 8-6 lead.
The Spruce Kings pulled their goalie with 5:56 left in the final frame and struck again with two minutes left.
But Ryan Parker shut the door the rest of the way stopping 41 shots on the night for the victory, while Trail fired 32 shots at the Spruce Kings net. Trail went 1-for-1 on the power play and P.G. was 3-for-3.
The Smoke Eaters will take a holiday break until Saturday, Dec. 30 when they resume their rivalry with the Cranbrook Bucks at the Trail Memorial Centre at 7 p.m. They will travel to Cranbrook for a New Years tilt at 6 p.m. MST on Dec. 31.