The 2011 portion of the BCHL season has not been kind to a Quesnel Millionaires team that closed out the 2010 portion with four wins and a tie in nine games in December.
With Friday night’s 4-3 loss against the Trail Smoke Eaters, the Mills have four ties and six losses in 2011, not the 0.500 record coach Doug Hedley was looking for heading into the final stretch before the playoffs.
Despite being outshot 38 – 24 the Mills were in this game until the end of the third period due in large part to an outstanding performance by Bryton Udy who stopped 34 of 38 shots he faced, including a couple of breakaways and odd-man rushes.
Cullen Bradshaw secured the win for the Smoke Eaters with just 1:11 to go in the third period, after Michael Spring had tied the game 3-3 for the Mills with his ninth goal of the season tipping in a nice pass from Chris Kerr five minutes into the third period.
The Mills led twice during the game, 1-0 in the first period on a low laser point shot by David Thompson on the powerplay, then 2-1 on a goal by Thomas Hardy 11 minutes into the second period when he deflected a point shot by Thompson behind Trail netminder Kiefer Smiley.
But the second period really belonged to the Smoke Eaters who fired 16 shots at Udy, beating him twice on goals by Scott Jacklin and Scott Mellor.
The Mills were without captain, Skyler Smutek who served the first game of a two-game suspension for having three hit-to-the-head penalties this season. Smutek was replaced by affiliated player Bobby Brown a 6’5” defenceman from the Kelowna Chiefs of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.
Despite having Smutek out of the lineup, the Mills were perfect on the penalty kill, as they successfully defended against four Smoke Eater powerplays.
In the battle for the seventh place and the last playoff spot in the interior conference, the last-place Prince George Spruce Kings gained a single point in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Vernon Vipers, despite being down 3-0 after the first period and being outshot 39 – 20.
The Mills now head to Westside to face the Warriors Saturday at Royal LePage Place.
