Four power-play goals and a stingy penalty kill launched the Trail Smoke Eaters to a decisive victory over the Spruce Grove Saints on Friday at the Cominco Arena.
The Smoke Eaters bounced back from a 5-2 loss to the league leading Brooks Bandits on Wednesday, and rallied on Friday to a 5-1 win over the Saints.
Trail forward Christian Kim scored the game winner on the power play 4:47 into the second period. The Torrance, Calif. product deflected a shot from Evan Sundar past Spruce Grove goalie Ryan De Kok to give the Smoke Eaters a 2-0 lead.
With the win, Trail improves to 9-5-1-1 and sit in third place in the Interior West Division, while Spruce Grove fall to 6-8-1-0 and sit in fourth place in the Interior East Division.
Smokies veteran defenceman Jack Kennedy tallied his first of the campaign to open the scoring on a power play at 4:27 of the first. Kennedy worked the puck to Sundar and Jason Stefanek at the blue line, before firing a shot through traffic into the top corner for a 1-0 lead.
The Saints carried the play in the first, outshooting the Smoke Eaters 11-4, but Trail goalie Ryan Parker was solid in the Trail net.
Trail went up 3-0, 40 seconds after Kim's game winner, when Gryphon Bucci jumped on a blocked shot in front and wired it top shelf.
The Saints beat Parker midway through the second when former Smoke Eater defenceman Brody Juck scored his first of the season to cut the lead to 3-1. Juck, a Coquitlam native, was traded to Spruce Grove from Trail in June in exchange for Sundar, who had three points on the night for the Smoke Eaters.
In the third, Spruce Grove forward Grayson Niehaus was sent off for a five-minute major for boarding with 8:05 to play, and the Smoke Eaters capitalized.
Trail went up 4-1, after an inspired passing play between Sundar, Kim, and Attila Lippai, who buried his own rebound with 4:56 left in the final frame.
The Smoke Eaters completed the scoring just 34 seconds later, when Judah Makway buried a rebound off a blocker save from De Kok for the 5-1 final.
Spruce Grove outshot Trail 29-27, but the Smoke Eaters were 4-for-7 on the power play, and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
In Wednesday's game against Brooks, Trail led 1-0 after Lippai redirected a centring pass from Kim past the Bandits goalie Johnny Hicks at 12:20.
But Brooks responded with goals from Isaac Johnson and Liam Fitzpatrick for a 2-1 first period lead. The Bandits kept rolling in the second, getting goals from Parker Lalonde and AJ LaCroix, while outshooting Trail 19-11 for a 4-1 lead.
Smoke Eaters defenceman Noah Ziskie cut the lead to 4-2 at 11:22 of the final frame, but the Bandits' Ethan Beyer tallied his first of the season into an empty net with 2:57 remaining.
Brooks outshot Trail 39-27, and were 0-for-5 on the power play, and Trail 0-for-4.
The 14-1-0-0 Bandits went on to sweep its three-game series through the Southern Interior with a 4-1 win over West Kelowna Warriors and a 6-2 victory over the Penticton Vees.
The Smoke Eaters will look to stay on the winning track when they face the 5-8-3-0 Vernon Vipers on Friday, Nov. 8 at the Cominco Arena.
The Vipers have seen improvement in the past five games, beating Salmon Arm 4-0, before losing a pair of matches in overtime to the Vees in Penticton and Victoria at home.
Vernon is coming off a decisive 6-1 win over West Kelowna Saturday, following a 3-0 loss to the Silverbacks Friday, amassing six of 10 points in the last five games.
Trail will then travel to Penticton to play the Vees on a special Remembrance Day match up, the only BCHL game on the schedule, with the puck drop at 2 p.m. at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
