A wild weekend on the road ended with a split for the Trail Smoke Eaters.
Zach Michaelis returned to the line up and scored twice in Trail’s 8-0 victory over the Merritt Centennials on Friday in Merritt.
However, the West Kelowna Warriors made up for a 4-0 loss in their last meeting in Trail Jan. 14, with a 10-5 win at home on Saturday.
Trail jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Coalson Wolford and Cameron Moger, but the Warriors struck for three straight to make it 3-2 at the end of one.
Brady Hunter tied it 19 seconds into the second period, but West Kelowna regained a 4-3 lead heading into a wide open third.
West Kelowna struck for six in the final frame, despite being outshot 19-13 in the period. Trail’s Evan Busy and Hunter rounded out the scoring for the visitors.
Christophe Farmer had a five-point night for the Warriors, while former Smoke Eater Chase Dafoe had a goal and an assist.
West Kelowna outshot Trail 38-34 and went 2-for-5 on the power play, while Trail was 2-for-3.
With the win the Warriors improve their record 22-13-0-0 good for fourth place overall in the Interior Conference, while Trail remains in sixth place at 16-15-1-1.
On Friday, Trail goalie Evan Fradette earned his second shut out of the season, and Michaelis came back strong after missing the last four games due to injury, with a three-point night.
Michaelis opened the scoring 4:32 into the opening frame followed by goals from Connor Michaud, Quinn Disher, and Ridge Dawson for a 4-0 first period lead.
Down two men midway through period 2, Michaud intercepted a pass and saucered a perfect feed to Bushy to finish the 2-on-1 for a 5-0 lead.
Wolford scored his ninth of the campaign late in the second to go up 6-0.
Charlie Strobel and Michaelis completed the scoring in the third, as Trail outshot Merritt 59-35, and were 2-for-5 on the power play, and 6-for-6 on the PK.
Fradette earned the game’s first star, Michaeils with three points the second star, and Michaud (1G,2A) third star.
Trail returns home on Wednesday when they host the Vernon Vipers at 7 p.m. at the Trail Memorial Centre.
The Smoke Eaters return to the road with games in Salmon Arm versus the first place Silverbacks on Friday, and then play in Penticton against the Vees on Saturday.
Read: Smoke Eaters shut out Warriors
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