Preview: Smoke Eaters make final trip of the season to Salmon Arm
The Trail Smoke Eaters make their final trip of the 2019/20 season to Salmon Arm, looking to keep up their strong play before the Christmas break.
Regular season series vs Salmon Arm Silverbacks
September 13th @ Trail Memorial Centre 4-2 L (BOXSCORE)
September 14th @ Trail Memorial Centre 3-2 OTL(BOXSCORE)
November 1st @ Shaw Centre 5-4 W (BOXSCORE)
November 2nd @ Shaw Centre 2-1 SOL (BOXSCORE)
December 15th @ Shaw Centre (3pm)
February 21st @ Trail Memorial Centre (7pm)
It’s the last time in the regular season the Smoke Eaters will have to play at the Shaw Centre, as they look to continue their strong play in Salmon Arm. The Smoke Eaters took three out of four points on the first weekend of November against the Backs, picking up a 5-4 win and a 2-1 shootout loss. The Smoke Eaters will look to build off their two home wins, as they beat the Warriors on Friday night 4-3 with the help of their big guns back in the lineup. Johnson, Lapointe and Ozar made an immediate impact up top for the Smoke Eaters leading to four goals in the opening 11 minutes of play. With now a day off between games Jeff Tambellini will hope he can get a full 60 minute show from his crew. The Smokies were still line juggling on Friday night, with a full lineup being available for selection for the first time for Tambellini this season. The Smoke Eaters are 1W-1L-1OTL-1SOL against the Backs this season and will look to add one more to the win column on Sunday afternoon.
Smoke Eaters leading scorers:
Johnson (23-39-62)
Colella (15-29-44)
Ozar (13-27-40)
Ghirardosi (18-14-32)
Lapointe (12-19-31)
The Silverbacks come in to today’s game a shade of their former selves. The Backs who looked unstoppable early in the year have now lost nine games in a row following a 6-5 loss to the Wenatchee Wild on Friday night. The last win for the Backs came against the Wild in a 3-2 OT win on the 17th of November. Ethan Langenegger, who started so strongly as well has seen his form dip. The Backs have allowed 34 goals over their past nine, with four of them having five or more goals against. They did find their scoring touch on Friday night however, coming back from a 3-0 deficit in Wenatchee only to lose in the closing minutes. It will be a positive point to lean on for the Silverbacks coaching staff on the effort shown Friday night that they can end this streak before their Christmas break. The Backs who host their teddy bear toss today, won’t play again until the 28th of December in Vernon. The last thing they’ll want to do is drop another game to an interior rival, or go into the break on a ten game slide.
Silverbacks leading scorers:
Wakeford (14-20-34)
Hirose (5-29-34)
Rybarik (16-10-26)
Poirier (11-15-26)
Unruh (8-15-23)
The Smoke Eaters will look to continue their streak while also adding to the Silverbacks loss tally as these two Interior division rivals go at it for the last time in 2019. Puck drop is at 3pm with the pre-game show starting at 2:50pm on HockeyTV or Mixlr with Ben Phillips.