The pendulum in the BCHL’s Kootenay rivalry appears to be swinging in the favour of the Trail Smoke Eaters following Wednesday’s 3-2 win over the Cranbrook Bucks.
The Bucks came out swinging in the first period, but ran into a brick wall in Trail’s crease in the form of goaltender Teagan Kendrick. Cranbrook fired eighteen shots through the opening frame, but Trail goals from Mathieu Cobetto-Roy and Josh Schenk left the Bucks in a 2-0 hole at intermission.
Cranbrook managed to gain one back in the second period. A friendly bounce of the boards for Julian Frias put the Bucks on the board at the 10:06 barrier of the middle frame. The Bucks trailed 2-1 after forty minutes.
In the third period, Joseph Blackly finished a nice passing play to vault the Bucks into a 2-2 tie at 5:56, and it appeared overtime might be in the future. However, Trail had no intentions of extending their stay in the Key City, and an Adam Barone power play goal at 9:25 gave the Smokies a 3-2 lead which proved to be the difference-maker. Cranbrook pushed late in the period, but failed to make up any ground, and Trail left the ice with a 3-2 win and secured their third straight win in their season series versus the Bucks.
Wednesday’s loss falls Cranbrook’s record to 14-21-2, the Bucks did manage to outshoot Trail 47-27 albeit in a losing effort. On special teams, the Bucks went 0/3 on the power play while their penalty kill finished 4/6.
The Bucks return to action on Friday, January 26 versus the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.
Buck Tracks:
- Best of luck to Patrick Murphy at Friday’s Top Prospects Game and to Donovan Frias at the BCHL All Star tournament on Saturday!
– Photo Credit: Martin Ross
