Game: Powell River Kings vs Trail Smoke Eaters
Arena: Cominco Arena
Puck Drop: 3:00pm
Broadcast: Starts at 2:45pm
95.7 SunFM Free Audio
FastHockey PPV Video
Kings This Season vs Smoke Eaters: 0-0-0-0
Last Meeting: Kings won 3-2 (OT)
Kings 2012/2013 Record: 3-4-0-2
Kings on the Road: 1-4-0-1
Kings Last 10: 3-4-0-2
Kings vs Interior: 1-1-0-0
Smoke Eaters 2012/2013 Record: 3-5-0-0
Smoke Eaters at Home: 2-1-0-0
Smoke Eaters Last 10: 3-5-0-0
The Kings need to score…plain and simple. You look at the games, and for the majority of Friday’s game, the Kings had plenty of chances, just couldn’t score. Braeden Ostephchuk put the team in the position to get a win, and the skaters couldn’t solve Mitch Gillam.
On Saturday, not much went right, but Jonah Imoo was still strong, and did what he could. A tip in front, a goal batted in with the glove and a shot from the point through heavy traffic and ones tough to deal with for the guy between the pipes. Up front, there seems to be a mix of too much urgency, and not enough urgency. Some players are fighting the puck, trying to get off a shot too quick when other options are available. Others don’t have the urgency to find the puck.
Today, it’s the end of a long road trip. The Kings must find a way to put a puck past a goaltender this weekend, or they face losing 3 straight on the road for the 2nd consecutive time. No changes for the Kings this afternoon, as everyone got through last night’s game healthy.
You talk about the Kings needing to score goals, well the Smokies just blanked the Vernon Vipers last night 3-0. Lyndon Stanwood was stellar in goal, stopping 33 shots en route to the victory. The Smokies, as described by their PBP man Chris Wahl, are a Jekyll and Hyde team. They have been fantastic at home in Trail, awful on the road. The results in the past two weeks prove that. A 3-0 shutout last night at Cominco, followed 9-2 and 7-2 losses on the road to West Kelowna and Vernon respectively.
A couple of familiar faces on the roster too for Trail. Garrett McMullen is now the Smokies Captain, and leads the team in scoring with 8 points. Also on the roster is Braeden Pears, who has 2 points in 6 games. Lyndon Stanwood should see the start in net once again for Trail, and why not after last night.
On the show, we begin our look at the top 20 ranked CJHL franchises across the country. The Humboldt Broncos hosted last year’s RBC, and their broadcaster Clark Stork will join me in the 1st intermission. In the 2nd intermission, Chris Wahl will talk on this up and down Smokies team.
After 60 or so minutes, we’ll talk to Derek Bachynski, and get him to break down the game and look ahead to the home weekend, Parents Weekend, against Merritt and Victoria at the start of October.
