When the smoke finally cleared from a wild night at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex, the visiting Trail Smoke Eaters left with a 4-1 over the Coquitlam Express in their BC Hockey League game on Friday.
The only visit to Coquitlam by the Smoke Eaters this season was punctuated by several dust-ups in the third period that resulted in game misconducts for three players, a gross misconduct for Trail’s Michael Hodge, and a number of 10-minute misconducts.
Shortly after Hunter Alden finally got the Express on the scoreboard almost eight minutes into the third period, Coquitlam’s Regan Kimens and Trail’s Tyler Ghirardosi dropped the gloves after a whistle. The incident seemed to boil over after an earlier confrontation between the two players in which Ghirardosi gave Kimens a shot after the Express player had been called for hooking his Smoke Eaters’ foe. Both were sent to the box in that instance.
Tempers flared up again about seven minutes later when Trail’s Kyle Budvarson and Coquitlam’s Jack Cameron were each assessed misconduct penalties.
And when Coquitlam’s Henry Rybinski was set to the dressing room for checking from behind, the Express was left with just 11 skaters on their bench.
The Smoke Eaters, who are coached by former Port Moody resident Jeff Tambellini, scored just 1:21 into the game.
Trail scored two more in the second period and another in the third before Alden’s marker made it 4-1.
Clay Stevenson stopped 23 of the 27 shots he faced in Coquitlam’s net, while Trail’s Adam Marcoux stopped all but one of the 31 shots sent his way.
The Express will be at the South Surrey Arena on Saturday night to face the Surrey Eagles at 7 p.m.
