By Trail Smoke Eaters

The Smoke Eaters will look to open their 2022 season with two points on the road in Penticton, which will be no easy task.

The SOEC wasn’t an easy place to play last season for the Smoke Eaters who won once (the only team in the post season to beat Penticton) and lost another in overtime with the rest being regulation defeats. 11 players, who were part of last years team, will be looking to crash the party as the Vees celebrate their championship season.

The Vees will kick off their title defence on Friday night, looking to protect their interior division and BCHL titles. The Vees, after losing their first game of the post season to the Smoke Eaters in game one at the SOEC, went on an incredible run of 16 straight wins, walking through the competition to claim the Fred Page Cup.

The Vees also return a large core for this season with 13 players returning to Penticton from the championship run. The big change for the Vees comes in net with two new netminders tasked at holding the fort with Hank Levy and Luca Di Pasquo, who is committed to Michigan state. Amongst the returning forwards for Penticton their lethal duo of Josh and Bradley Nadeau return again with Russian born forward Aydar Suniev bound to take a larger role this year after joining the Vees mid season.

Source: trailsmokeeaters.com