Recap: Vees fall behind early, drop contest to Smoke Eaters on Friday night
Photo: Jennifer Small / Trail Smoke Eaters
TRAIL, B.C. – The Penticton Vees fell behind early and never could recover in their 4-1 loss to the Trail Smoke Eaters, Friday night at Cominco Arena in the West Kootenays.
Trail scored twice in the first eight minutes of the game, as Penticton was down a pair of goals before the halfway point of the opening period.
“It wasn’t the way we wanted to start the game going down early. We just didn’t get enough done in all three zones tonight and we could have played with more energy. We will have to be better going forward, starting tomorrow night against Vernon,” commented Assistant Coach Jason McKee following Friday’s game.
Trail scored in bunches on Friday, as they scored twice in three minutes in the first period and twice in two and a half minutes in the third. The Smokies have now won four of their first five games at home to start the season.
Max Heise scored the Vees lone goal, on the power play, late in the first period. His seventh of the season and team-leading fifth power play goal made it 2-1 after 20 minutes.
Mad Max is at it again! Another PPG to cut the lead to 1! pic.twitter.com/fikUgFnX2e
— Penticton Vees (@PentictonVees) October 26, 2024
Will Ingemann suffered the loss in net after he surrendered four goals on 22 shots. Trails goaltender Teagan Kendrick was named first star after stopping 34 shots.
Trail’s Ridge Dawson and Judah Makway scored in the opening frame to put the Smokies up by a pair. Dawson opened the scoring at 5:16 after a turnover by Penticton at the side of their net. Three minutes later Makway made it 2-0 Trail, as his shot beat under the glove of Ingemann from the left wing.
Heise’s power play goal came at 18:34 of the first period after a nice play at the blueline by Luke Posthumus. Posthumus kept the play onside with a drop pass between his legs to Heise, who turned and scored from the circle beating Kendrick on the glove side.
In a scoreless second period, the Vees had to kill-off a four-minute Trail power play in the final six minutes of the frame trailing by a goal. Penticton thought they should have been awarded their own four-minute power play as the period ended, after Caton Ryan took a stick to the face that cut the forward but it went undetected.
In the final frame, the Smoke Eaters came out and scored twice in the first five minutes put the game out of reach. Dylan Lariviere made it 3-1 for Trail at 2:57, as he scored on a rebound off the goalie’s pad. Then Makway scored his second of the game at 5:20 to make it 4-1, after a give-and-go with Evan Sundar.
GAME NOTES
Conyr Hellyer had his three-game goal scoring streak and six-game point streak come to an end in the loss. After Friday’s setback, the Vees are now 6-3-0-0 through nine road games. 10 of the Vees first 12 games have been away from Penticton.
GAME STATS
Shots: Vees- 34 Smoke Eaters- 22
Scoring: Max Heise (7th)
Goaltending: Will Ingemann (L) 18/22, 60:00
Vees Power-Play: 1/3
Vees Penalty-Kill: 4/4
Three Stars:
- Teagan Kendrick
- Max Heise
- Dylan Lariviere
Up Next: The Vees (9-3-0-0) host the Vernon Vipers (4-7-1-0) at the SOEC on Saturday, October 26th, at 6:00 pm. Tickets are $18 adults, and free for local youth 18 and under, courtesy of Peters Bros. Construction. To purchase tickets, go to www.valleyfirsttix.com, or in person at the Valley First box office at the SOEC.