Trail hangs on for 3rd straight win over Vees
The Penticton Vees’ season will be on the line tonight in Trail.
Levi Glasman scored twice as the Trail Smoke Eaters beat the Vees 4-3 on Friday at the South Okanagan Events Centre, grabbing a 3-2 lead in the Interior Division semifinal series.
Kale Howarth and Braeden Tuck — with a shorthanded empty-net goal that ended up being the winner — also scored as Trail won its third straight game in the best-of-seven series.
Game 6 goes tonight at 7 p.m. at the Cominco Arena, with the Vees needing a win to get the series back to the SOEC for a Game 7 on Monday.
Lukas Sillinger, Marcus Mitchell and Taylor Ward scored for the Vees.
Adam Marcoux for Trail and Adam Scheel for Penticton each made 22 saves.
For the first time since Game 1, the Smokies scored first as Howarth’s 40-foot wrist shot deflected off Vees forward Cole Shepard and past Scheel at 4:21.
The Vees bounced back midway through the period with two goals in 47 seconds.
Rizzo made a perfect pass to Sillinger for a one-timer from the right circle that Marcoux got a piece of but couldn’t keep out at 11:53.
Seconds later, Trail coughed up the puck at its own blue line and Taylor Ward teed up Mitchell on a 2-on-1 break to beat Marcoux on the short side at 12:40.
The Vees outshot Trail 10-4 in the first period, but the visitors — thanks to three straight power plays — flipped the script in the second, outshooting the Vees 15-3 and scoring the tying goal.
Glasman got the goal at 14:05, tipping home a centering pass by Ross Armour from the edge of the crease.
The Vees played the last 12 minutes of the period without key defenceman Michael Campoli, who was cut as he was hit into the boards. Campoli returned to start the third period wearing jersey No. 2 instead of his usual No. 19.
Glasman put Trail up 3-2 on an odd-man rush at 10:11, taking a pass from Carter Jones and beating Scheel with a high shot on the blocker side.
The Vees got a power play chance with 1:59 to go and pulled Scheel to make it a 6-on-4. But Wyatt Sloboshan’s shot was blocked at the point and Tuck made it 4-2 with a shorthanded empty-net goal at 18:42.
The Vees didn’t quit though. After getting Scheel to the bench again, Ward one-timed a pass from Jonny Tychonick for a power-play goal with 28 seconds left to make it 4-3.
Penticton got a faceoff in Trail territory with 19 seconds left but was unable to generate a chance to tie the game.
Glasman, Lukas Sillinger and Armour — who had two assists — were the three stars.
WILD 3, VIPERS 2 (2OT)
At Vernon, Chad Sasaki scored on the first shot of double overtime to lift the Wenatchee Wild to a 3-2 victory over the host Vipers and a 3-2 series lead in the other Interior semifinal.
Jordan Sandhu and Cameron Trott, to force overtime with one second remaining in regulation, scored for Vernon, which has also lost three straight games after winning the first two.