Trail Smoke Eaters beat Chilliwack, earn first home win

Trail Smoke Eaters beat Chilliwack, earn first home win

Published 11:30 am Sunday, October 18, 2026

The Trail Smoke Eaters earned its first home-win of the season at the Trail Memorial Centre with a victory over the Chilliwack Chiefs on Saturday, Oct. 17, following a tough loss in West Kelowna, Friday.

Smoke Eaters defenceman Kallen Ray scored the game winner, his first of the season, and Malek Schlenker was especially solid in goal to lift Trail to a 2-1 victory.

Just 26 seconds after Chilliwack tied it, Max Schaller dished to Ray at the right circle and the Michigan product wired a shot through the five hole of Chiefs goalie Noah Tegelaar to put Trail up with 8:25 to play.

With the win, the Smoke Eaters improve to 5-6, while the Chiefs fall to 7-5-0-0 that included a 5-3 loss to the Cranbrook Bucks on Friday. The Smoke Eaters sit in fifth in the Interior West division a point behind Cranbrook and the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, both at 5-5-1-0.

The Vernon Vipers lead the division and the league with a 9-1-1-0 record, following back-to-back wins over the Silverbacks on the weekend.

Smoke Eaters forward Dysen Drake, opened the scoring on a perfect backdoor pass from the point from Colton Whitfield at 13:40 of the second period. Drake found the back of the net after hitting the crossbar and the post in the first frame for his seventh of the season.

Trail’s defence was as good as it could be in the second period holding the Chiefs to just one shot on goal. But Chilliwack tied it with 8:51 left in the third period, when Adam Boatter’s point shot flew through traffic and past a screened Schlenker.

Schlenker didn’t need to make many, but the Okotoks product made a handful of stellar saves in the late going to keep the 2-1 lead and celebrate the team’s first win in four tries in front of the home crowd.

Trail outshot Chilliwack 18-14, and went 0-for-3 on the power play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.

In Friday’s match in West Kelowna, the Smoke Eaters led 3-1 after two periods, but four straight goals in the third lifted the Warriors to a 5-3 victory.

Smoke Eaters got goals from Erik Larson, and Tim-Kristian Lukkarinen and Jaden Sikura on the power play to give Trail the lead after 40 minutes.

However Max Dinneen netted a power play marker 1:22 into the final frame, followed by goals from Chaz Lentz, Dinneen’s second of the game, and an empty netter from Emmanuel Chan for his 12th of the campaign for the 5-3 final.

West Kelowna outshot Trail 14-4 in the third period, and 34-24 total. Trail scored twice on four power plays, and the Warriors once on four attempts.

Trail will now enjoy a two week home-stand as they host Salmon Arm on Friday, Oct. 23 and the Spruce Grove Saints on Saturday, Oct. 24.

The puck drops at 7 p.m. at the Cominco Arena.