The Penticton Vees ended the Trail Smoke Eaters season on Sunday with a convincing shut out victoy.
The Vees put an exclamation mark on the season, firing 51 shots on the Trail goalie Logan Terness for a 7-0 win.
The Smoke Eaters started their final week of play with a 1-0 victory over Cranbrook Bucks on Wednesday, but fell 5-4 to the Bucks on Friday, before wrapping up the 20-game campaign with the loss to Penticton.
The Smoke Eaters played all 20 games in 34 days, and were suffering from injury and general COVID fatigue heading into the final week.
The Vees took a 1-0 lead into the second period, but goals from Tyler Ho, Jacob Quillan, and Stefano Bottini put the home team up 4-0 in the second.
Two goals from Frank Djurasevic and one from Tristan Amonte completed the scoring in the third as the Vees made the Smoke Eaters pay after Noah Wakeford was given a 5-minute major penalty for questioning the referees on a missed call.
The Vees outshot Trail 51-22 and scored twice on that power play to go 3-for-3 with the extra man. Trail had no power play opportunities.
In Friday’s match, the Cranbrook Bucks ended their season how they started it against the Smoke Eaters with a 5-4 victory.
Two goals by AJ Vasko in the final 31 seconds lifted the Bucks to victory for their third win in the Penticton bubble.
Trail jumped out to a 3-0 second period lead on goals from Kalen Szeto, Chase Daroe, and Ethan Willoughby, but the Bucks stormed back, scoring three goals in less than five minutes to tie it.
Quinn Disher notched his seventh at 16:36 to put Trail back on top, 4-3, and would hold the lead until Vasko tied it with 31 seconds to play, and then fired in the game winner with nine seconds left on the clock.
Trail outshot Cranbrook 36-28, and went 0-for-2 on the power play, while the Bucks were 1-for-5.
On Wednesday, Smoke Eaters goalie Terness earned his second shut out, stopping 33 shots, while Kalen Szeto scored the lone goal in a 1-0 victory.
Cranbrook outshot Trail 33-21, but a perfect performance from Terness backstopped Trail to its ninth win and earned the Richmond native the game’s first star.
Trail ended their season in second place in the bubble with a 9-11-0-0 record, Cranbrook was third at 3-16-0-1, and the Vees first at 18-1-0-1.
See more on the Smoke Eaters season in Thursday’s Trail Times.
Read: Smoke Eaters beat Bucks, fall to Vees as they head into final week
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