PHOTO: Randy Emery/Trail Smoke Eaters
The West Kelowna Warriors had their winning streak snapped in shutout fashion on Friday night as they dropped a 4-0 decision to the Trail Smoke Eaters at Cominco Arena.
Despite an opening period of 16 shots, the Warriors were unable to crack Trail netminder Linden Marshall in the game’s opening frame and it would be the Smoke Eaters that got on the board first at the 8:03 mark of the 1st period.
After a great sequence of saves from Warriors goaltender Shane Farkas, a scramble to his glove side resulted in Kale Howarth banging in the loose puck for the 1-0 lead for the Smoke Eaters and that score would hold up after one period despite the shots on goal favouring the Warriors by a 16-9 count.
The 2nd period was all Trail as the Smokies fired 14 shots toward goal and found the back of the net three times. Kale Howarth added his 2nd goal of the game off a left wing rush at the 10:42 mark to make it a 2-0 game in favour of the Smoke Eaters.
Andre Ghantous added a power play goal at the 12:28 mark of the second period on a jam play in the slot while at the 15:14 mark of the 2nd, Spencer McLean extended the Smokies lead to 4-0 with a wrist shot past the glove side of Shane Farkas.
The 2nd period got a bit feisty as tempers boiled over late in the period seeing Parm Dhaliwal and Ross Armour drop the gloves in a spirited bout that would send both of them to the dressing room and send Trail into the 2nd intermission with a 4-0 lead.
The 3rd period saw no scoring with not much action going on between the two sides with West Kelowna edging the Smokies 9-8 in the shot category with the Smoke Eaters ending the Warriors win streak with a 4-0 victory.
Shane Farkas made 25 saves on 29 shots for his 9th loss of the season while Linden Marshall stopped each of the 31 shots thrown his way in the shutout victory.
FINAL SCORE: 4-0 Smoke Eaters
SHOTS ON GOAL: 31-29 Warriors
PP: Warriors (0/3) Smoke Eaters (2/6)
3 STARS: 1) Kale Howarth (2-0-2)
2) Linden Marshall (31 saves on 31 shots)
3) Spencer McLean (1-0-1)
Attendance: 1438
The Warriors (18-17-0-1) tackle the New Year with a home-and-home set against the Merritt Centennials (12-15-0-7) starting at Royal LePage Place on Friday, January 6th for a 7:00 PM face-off. Tickets are available at the Warriors office or by calling Kim at (250) 769-7051.
