The Smoke Eaters looked to be in control of the game on Wednesday night up 3-1 but a Silverbacks clawed all the way back to hand the Smoke Eaters what might be more than just a 5-3 loss.
The Smoke Eaters again came out firing on Wednesday, outshooting the Backs 21-8 and were unfortunate not to take a lead to the first period. The Backs opened the scoring 4:54 into the game as Tucker Hartman found himself on the end of a cross ice pass from Simon Tassy, as the Silverbacks defenceman was able to tip the puck over Evan Fradette and open the scoring. The Silverbacks lead was short lived as 1:16 later the Smoke Eaters got their reward with Zach Michaelis scoring his team leading 24th of the year, after missing seconds earlier on a breakaway he was able to recover the puck with the help of Hunter and Wolford and get a shot off from the right side off a Salmon Arm player and past Liam Vanderkooi.
Jumping ahead to the second period, Smoke Eater captain and former Silverback had himself a fairly impressive opening ten minutes of the period. Just 1:03 into the second Wolford wasted no time on a 2-on-1 with Hunter after Michaelis took the hit to make the play, leading to the Smoke Eaters go ahead goal.
The Smoke Eaters then doubled their lead with another Wolford goal. This one coming six minutes later as again the line of Wolford, Hunter and Michaelis were creating problems for the Silverbacks. A battle won in the corner by Hunter as he cycled the puck up to Michaelis, who skated to the top of the right circle to let his shot got that was tipped in by Wolford at the back post.
The Silverbacks would come charging back however with two goals just 39 seconds apart. The first came on the powerplay as Zack Smith beat Fradette with the help of a deflection off of a body in front to give the Backs some life. Then seconds later Aiden Lindblad would find himself on a breakaway from the offensive blue line in, beating Fradette to tie the game at 3. The Smoke Eaters had chances to retake the lead late in the second but Vanderkooi and the Silverbacks shut the door.
The game would be decided by the backs just 2 minutes into the third as the Backs took their second and final lead of the night as Cobetto-Roy scored off a rebound the was created due to a bad change and a give away the the Silverbacks capitalized on. Salmon Arm would add an empty net goal in the final minutes to seal the victory 5-3 over the Smoke Eaters, who lost Hunter part way through the third to an unknown injury, that could keep him out of the line up. Hunter who leads the Smoke Eaters in points had been one of their best players all season long, and could be a big hole if he does miss some time. The Smoke Eaters are still eying returns for Ridge Dawson and Ethan Willoughby who are on a day-to-day basis. If Hunter is out long term the return of Dawson and Willoughby couldn’t be timed any better.
The Smoke Eaters will wrap up their home stand on Friday night when West Kelowna comes to town.
