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Preview: Vees look to carry momentum into game two

Penticton, BC: The Vees offence came life in the second half of the second period, scoring four unanswered goals en route to a 5-3 in game one against the Trail Smoke Eaters. Now Penticton will look to continue that trend and keep home ice advantage before the series shifts to Trail.

After the Vees came out strong and held Trail in their own end for extended periods of time in the opening minutes, the Smoke Eaters found their legs and turned on the attack. They would outshoot Penticton 11-7 over the first period and lead 1-0 on a late goal by Braeden Tuck.

Looking for a strong start to the second, the Vees got the exact opposite as Blaine Caton scored just 27 seconds in to extend Trail’s lead to 2-0.

Jack Barnes stopped the bleeding with his third goal of the post season, driving down the left wing before cutting to the net and jamming the puck past Adam Marcoux 3:04 into the period.

It wasn’t a one-goal game for long; just 1:37 after Barnes’ goal, Ethan Martini took a wrist shot from the left point that eluded Adam Scheel through a maze of bodies to restore the Smoke Eaters two-goal advantage.

Trail continued to take it to the Vees, and Penticton found themselves in a tough spot down a man with Trail pressuring. Luckily for the Vees, Ross Armour tried a drop pass near the blue line that Wyatt Sloboshan was able to disrupt, sending the Vees on a two-on-one rush.

Sloboshan carried the puck down the right wing and held on before firing a wrist shot under the blocker arm of Marcoux to cut it to 3-2 with 7:24 to go in the second.

In the dying seconds of the period, Jonny Tychonick held the line on a hard clearing attempt by Trail before swinging the puck across the ice. Dakota Boutin found it, skated up the left boards all the way to the blue line before turning to the slot and firing a shot through traffic.

Marcoux made the original save, but Ward jammed home the rebound with just nine seconds to go in the period, tying things up heading into the third.

Kale Howarth was given a slashing penalty after the period had ended, sending the Vees to their third power play of the game. Just 48 seconds in, Chris Klack roofed a goal-line feed from Owen Sillinger to give the Vees their first lead of the game.

Nearly four minutes later, on another power play, Boutin showed great patience skating down the right wing into the Trail zone before spotting Jordan Henderson trailing the play as the veteran defenceman scored his first of the playoffs to make it 5-3.

Trail had difficulty generating offensive chances over the final 20 minutes, registering just four shots on net despite a power play late in the game. The Vees will look to carry the momentum from the come-from-behind win into game two before the series will shift to Trail for games three and four Tuesday and Wednesday.

Team Statistics 

Leading Scorers

Penticton Vees

Taylor Ward – 5 G 3 A 5 GP

Chris Klack – 4 G 3 A 5 GP

Jonny Tychonick – 1 G 6 A 5 GP

Trail Smoke Eaters

Kale Howarth – 3 G 5 A 5 G

Levi Glasman – 4 G 3 A 5 GP

Ross Armour – 0 G 7 A 5 GP

Special Teams

Penticton Vees

Power play – 9/23 – 39.1% (1st of remaining teams)

Penalty kill – 15/16 – 93.8% (1st of remaining teams)

Trail Smoke Eaters

Power play – 8/30 – 26.7% (3rd of remaining teams)

Penalty kill – 14/22 – 63.6% (last of remaining teams)

Series Schedule

Game one, March 16 – Vees 5 vs Smoke Eaters 3 Boxscore

Game two, March 17 – Vees vs Smoke Eaters

Game three, March 20 – Vees @ Smoke Eaters

Game four, March 21 – Vees @ Smoke Eaters

Game five, March 23 – Vees vs Smoke Eaters*

Game six, March 24 – Vees @ Smoke Eaters*

Game seven, March 26 – Vees vs Smoke Eaters*

*If Necessary