The Trail Smoke Eaters played the role of party pooper Saturday night, taking a 4-3 win over the Cranbrook Bucks at the club’s annual Teddy Bear Toss game.
The Smokies found paydirt early in the first period when Jack Ziliotto finished a passing play deep in the Bucks zone to put his team up 1-0 just 3:08 into the opening frame. The Bucks clawed back into a tie just past the halfway mark thanks to a Rasmus Svartstrom power play goal at 10:48, which also created a short delay in the action to give way for the Teddy Bear Toss. Svartstrom added one more before the end of the period to give Cranbrook a 2-1 lead at intermission.
Trail was able to distance themselves from the Bucks thanks to a three-goal showing in the second period. Tallies from Carter Matthews, Ridge Dawson and Noah Ziskie had Trail up 4-2 after forty minutes.
The Bucks had their sights set on a third period comeback, and got a good start with a Jacob Fletcher goal at 4:03 to cut Trail’s lead to 4-3. However, Trail was able to keep the Bucks off the board the rest of the way thanks largely to some stellar goaltending from Teagan Kendrick, and they skated to a 4-3 victory.
Saturday’s loss drops Cranbrook’s record to 11-9-0, the Bucks outshot Trail 40-27. On special teams, Cranbrook’s power play went 1/4 and they finished 1/1 on the penalty kill.
The Bucks are back on the road next weekend, starting Friday night versus the Crusaders in Sherwood Park
Buck Tracks:
- 3 points for Rasmus Svartstrom (2g,1a)
- 3 points for Jacob Fletcher (1g,2a)
- Congrats to Sam Lyne on being selected to represent Great Britain at the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championships
- Thank you Bucks fans for your great showing at our annual Teddy Bear Toss game!
