Smoke Eaters Suffer 7-1 Opening Season Loss To Penticton Vees Last Night

By Trail Smoke Eaters

The Smoke Eaters will look to bounce back from their opening night loss to the Penticton Vees as they head over the Okanagan Connector into Merritt to take on the Centennials.

The Smoke Eaters will look to go into Merritt and pick up their first two points of the new campaign.

The Smoke Eaters had success against the Centennials last season with a 4-1-0 record. But Nicola Valley has been a tough building to play in with the Smoke Eaters 4-5-0 in Merritt over the last few season’s, Pod season excluded.

The Smoke Eaters will look to build off the positives of Friday night, in parts of the first and third periods.

To be fair, there was also parts of the penalty kill the Smoke Eaters will like, despite allowing three goals. But when you get a 7 minute major penalty power play assessed against you, and one of the best offences in the league in Penticton, a goal is surely bound to end up in the net.

After the opening night nerves the Smoke Eaters will look to play more of their game tonight in Merritt.

Smoke Eaters leading scorers:

Parsons (1-0-1)
Bushy (0-1-1)

The Centennials are also coming off an opening night loss, as they hosted the Cranbrook Bucks on Friday night.

Cranbrook jumped out to a early lead on the road quickly putting three up on the Centennials in the opening period, and hung on for a 5-2 win.

Merritt will have some familiar faces in their lineup that Smoke Eaters fans will recognize, with Walker Erickson, Jackson Krill and Christian Lowe all members of the Centennials this season. The Cents will look to be more like the team of the second half from last year, hard to play against.

As they turn the page on their 50th anniversary season, Head Coach Curtis Toneff will be looking to get his side back in playoff contention. 

Centennials leading scorers:

Farren (1-0-1)
Johnson (1-0-1)
Erickson (0-1-1)
Murray (0-1-1)
Patella (0-1-1)

Source: trailsmokeeaters.com