The Trail Smoke Eaters will strive to stay on the winning track this weekend, but have two tough matches on tap.
Trail hosts the 14-6-0-1 Coquitlam Express tonight (Friday) at the Cominco Arena, before embarking on their first date with the Vees this season in Penticton.
Following a woeful season last year, the Express have been chugging along nicely with four wins in their last five games, including a 4-1 victory over the Vernon Vipers last week, and will equal their total wins from the 2017-18 campaign (15) with one more victory.
“That’s been a very well coached team, and I think they surprised a lot of people,” said Smoke Eaters coach and GM Jeff Tambellini. “To start the year, I think a lot of teams took them lightly based off their record last year, but they’re definitely a different hockey team.”
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Coquitlam’s top-six forwards have fuelled most of the Express offence. Coquitlam is led by Joshua Wildauer with nine goals and 22 points, and Regan Kimens and Dallas Farrell each with 21 points this season. Chase Danol, a Bowling Green commit, has been one of the Express’ most productive players of late, scoring six goals and 10 points in the last eight games.
“We definitely won’t be taking that group lightly. They play a very structured game, play hard with really good detail, so I think the entire league has caught on that they’re a team that is way better than people give them credit for, and we know we’re in for a tough test tomorrow.”
Coquitlam’s biggest strength may be between the pipes with 19-year-old goalies Kolby Matthews and Clay Stevenson coming up huge so far this season. Matthews, an RIT commit, has played in 13 games for the Express, going 7-6-0-0 with a 2.45 goals against average, and a .920 save percentage, while, Stevenson, a Dartmouth commit, has the best GAA, 2.01, in the BCHL, going 7-1-0-0 with a .928 save percentage.
“You can see the power of having good goaltending,” said Tambellini. “It solves a lot of problems, and has definitely been a strength for them this year.”
Trail is coming off a big shoot-out win over the Surrey Eagles on Sunday, and look to keep that momentum going this weekend. Smokies goalie Adam Marcoux came into the game with Trail down 3-1, and stopped 20 shots in the comeback win, including two big saves in the shootout.
Trail will need it’s goaltending at its best this weekend against the high-scoring Express, fourth in the league in goals-scored with 77.
The Smoke Eaters will also look to fire up its offence against Penticton on Saturday, as the 11-6-1-2 Vees continue their determined climb up the Interior Division ladder. The Vees are currently tied with Salmon Arm in third place, two points behind division leaders West Kelowna and Merritt.
“Penticton is always a good hockey club, and we know it’s going to be a tough test,” said Tambellini. “Look at our schedule coming in, and there’s no easy games in our league to start with, but our division schedule is ramping up now and as of Saturday night, we’re playing mostly divisional games for the rest of the year.”
The Smokies-Vees match is their first meeting since Trail won Game 7 of the Interior Division semifinal 4-2 in Penticton on Mar. 26 and promises to be an emotional one.
“There is no easy night, we know it’s going to be an emotional one against Penticton, like it always is, and we need our guys to be ready and gut one out in a hostile rink.”
Trail will have a healthy lineup this weekend and will look to make up ground, as they currently sit in seventh in the Interior at 8-10-3-1, seven points out of first place.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. for the Smoke Eaters-Express game tonight at the Cominco Arena.
Smoke Signals:Former Smoke Eater and current Penticton Vees forward Andre Ghantous committed to play for the Northern Michigan Wildcats. Ghantous played two seasons with Trail scoring 44 goals and 88 points and was instrumental in the Smokies playoff run last season netting five goals and 14 points.
