Post Game: Trail 4 Westside 1

Trail, BC - Kiefer Smiley made 37 saves as Trail beat Westside 4-1 on Saturday night. Smiley won't get credit for a shut out, but he stopped 61 of 62 shots he faced in 5 periods of work this weekend.

The Smokies swept the back to back home games against Westside. The two teams will play again on Tuesday in West Kelowna.

Sean Nugent and Sam Mellor opened the scoring for the Smokies with 2 goals in 32 seconds. Both men scored on Friday as well.

Nobody could find the back of the net in the second period despite the teams combining for 21 shots. Smiley and Westside goaltender Cam Gorchynski made sure both sides were still in it heading into the third.

Curtis Tonello gave his team some insurance with his first goal a Smoke Eater. Tonello has 12 points through 22 games in Trail, while he only had 5 in 24 games with the Bulldogs.

Kyle Singleton spoiled Smiley's shut out with a rebound goal mid-way through the thrid period. The Smokies netminder then had to come up with a couple of huge stops in the final 10 minutes to preserve the victory.

Nick Sandor scored his team leading 28th of the season into an empty net to secure the victory.

Scott Jacklin and Josh McEwan both has 2 assists for Trail. Wade Bennett was only credited with a single assist but made key plays leading to both the Nugent and Tonello goals.

Both teams had trouble on the power play over the weekend. They went a combined 0 for 14 on Friday and Saturday.

ON THE TRAIL: Mitch Kaufmann and Thomas Abenante are still out with injuries. Tom Rizzardo and Matt Wilkins were healthy scratches for the Smokies ... The Warriors were missing Trevor Bailey, Jason Nash, Max French, Michael Quinn and Izaak Berglund. Gus Correale and Brayden Sherbinin of the KIJHL's Nelson Leafs played as APs for Westside ... Westside now only leads the season series 3-2 with a sixth game coming up on Tuesday in West Kelowna ... Trail has points in all of their 5 games despite playing some of the top teams in the BCHL over that stretch. They're 7-6-0-3 in 2010 and have only played 2 teams bellow .500 over that span ... The win puts Trail 8 points ahead of Prince George for the final playoff spot in the Interior. The worst case scenario for the Smokies at this point is a tie for 7th with the Spruce Kings. However, they are now a point ahead of Merritt for 6th and a point behind Quesnel for 5th.