Game 32: Trail at Prince George

We are live once again tonight on Mountain FM. If you're out of our broadcast region you can listen live on the BCHL Fanzone.

The Smokies are now only one point ahead of Quesnel and three points up on Prince George for 5th place in the Interior Conference. They're dangerously close to being in 7th place. The last few games haven't been kind to the Smokies. It started with the rough game at home against Westside, a loss and a tie against Merritt and a loss in Quesnel. That's one point in their last four games. They now have back to back games with the Spruce Kings. Two wins would put some good distance between the two teams. Two losses would mean momentum for PG and a Smoke Eaters team sitting on the outside of the playoffs looking in. This team absolutely has to show up in a big way tonight.

Everyone had a good sleep in the hotel last night. They've had good meals, they're well rested, they should be ready to go tonight.

Friday, December 7th, 2007: Trail (14-14-1-2) at Prince George (11-14-1-5)

(Click here for the boxscore)

Line combinations last night were as follows:

Shade Limbert Santiago
Aiken Corcoran Paulsen
Mailey Bulach Ourosov
Davis Herold Martin

Warner Brodie
Levarski Westover
Hill Kinnebrew

Not sure if that will be exactly what we see, but the new units may need some time to gel. Santiago told me yesterday that he played half the year last season on a line with Aiken in Westside, and Santiago got very good results last season. It might be something they look at down the line. They do play together right now in the first PP unit. When things change like they did with the Arduin deal there's a lot of experimenting to do with new potential combinations.

Here's hoping for a good game tonight. Should be a heated one! Pre-game show starts at 6:45 on Mountain FM.

UPDATE: Steve Ourosov is out of tonight's game. He was suspended for being in the second fight after a stoppage. Last night both Mailey and Ourosov dropped the gloves at close to the same time, but Ourosov's was just after Mailey's so he's the one who has to sit out.

As a result Corcoran moves to wing and they're going to run with three Cs tonight. There are no extra players here nor is there any AP with the team. With Decosse, Proulx and Jago all out of the line-up they don't have much flexibility at the moment.

Also, Brian Youngson told me the fights in the third yesterday were not really the team challenging Quesnel. The Smokies were being challenged by Mills players and were answering the bell... not necessarily provoking it. That's what he told me in the pre-game.

Looking forward to the game. PG and Trail have had two really exciting games so far this year. The first one saw Trail jump out to a huge lead, PG came back, and Trail won it in overtime. Second one went to double OT and the Spruce Kings won it despite a controversial no call in the other end. Two of the most entertaining games this year.

Prince George is a very young team with a ton of rookies. They're getting better every game. They also feature one of the most dynamic players in the league. Jordy Christian is a pleasure to watch. He'll be off to St. Cloud next season, so lets enjoy watching him while we can.

Rollheiser gets the start again tonight for Trail. He's looking to rebound after a tough start last night. He has been everything the Smokies have asked from him this year. I bet he'll rebound tonight and give them a chance to win it. We'll see if the guys can puck some pucks in the net this evening.

Won't be updating much if at all during the game. But hope you enjoy the broadcast!

LIVE UPDATES

...Trail has dug themselves another hole tonight. Outshot 20-3 and outscored 3-0 in the first period by Prince George. This game isn't over by any means, but they just couldn't' get the puck out of their own zone in the first. PG broke up clearing attempt after clearing attempt. Good job by their defenders at the point getting shots through for tips on a couple of those goals. Christian gets his 20th of the year for the Spruce Kings. He's a heck of a player. Trail is letting their position in the standings slip away. They must respond.

...Smokies have 7 shots after two periods. Ingram kicked out of the game for arguing a penalty call. 5-0 PG on a shorthanded goal by Jordy Christian, his second of the game. Not much to say.

...Trail played much better in the third period. 13 shots and 2 goals. Corcoran scored on a one timer while Bulach put a backhand in the top corner. Brodie missed a puck with is gove in the neutral zone allowing Muchalla to break in and score. Things got messy in the final 10 seconds. Brodie and Davies fought. Then Davis apparently cross checked Christian (I missed it) before that turned into a mess with McLeod and Martin involved. Davis got a gross misconduct and is gone for 3 games now. At that point for some reason Muchalla decided to intervene in the Davies/Brodie fight. Just a senseless move on Muchalla's part to become the third man in. Levarsky jumped him to even the odds, so Forsythe followed in and for the second time in 10 seconds Prince George had another third man in. Herold evened the odds and the linesmen worked on breaking it all up at that point. Davis is gone for three games, the rest we're not sure yet. Herold, McLeod, Forsythe and Muchalla all got game misconducts and will miss tomorrow's game. Not sure if any will get additional suspensions. I'm not sure why McLeod or Herold got games. Herold especially was just evening the odds after PG had the third man in for the second time. Muchalla and Forsythe I would think will both face additional discipline for being the third men. I'm not sure how much that would be.

It'll be an interesting game tomorrow night. Both teams will be shorthanded. Apparently the local midget team is out of town so there are no APs available for the Spruce Kings. I guess we'll see three lines for both teams tomorrow. The Smokies desperately need two points tomorrow. They're now only 1 point ahead of both Quesnel and PG.