Christian Kim is credited with the highlight reel goal of the season at Cominco Arena.
The 20-year-old Smokies winger scored the winning goal in Saturday night’s 4-2 shunning of Sherwood Park on a penalty shot.
Kim says he was pumped to see the penalty shot call after being hooked during a breakaway.
“I was pretty excited, I haven’t had a penalty shot in the BCHL yet so I thought it was a pretty good chance to showcase my skills,” said the third-year Smokie and he sure did, using a series of dekes, head fakes and sure handed stick work at varying speeds before firing the puck into the top of the net.
But was it planned?
“Sort of,” said the crafty Californian.
“I had a move in mind, but I didn’t do the move I was thinking of, just kind of took the open space, made a fake one way and had to open net so I shot it,” Kim explained, noting that there was something different about this chance.
“I don’t really have much experience with a righty glove (goaltender that catches with the right hand), so I didn’t really know what to do coming down so I just hoped for the best and trusted my instincts,” Kim said, adding that practicing penalty shots and shootout situations has become a daily post-practice routine.
“We have a couple guys who have a little shootout competition at the end of practice, with Liam and Johnny (goaltenders Lyam Leblanc and Chayse Johnson), we have a pretty good, healthy competition, we have fun with it, we try different stuff so it’s nice to have two goalies to work with on different moves after practice so it helps a lot,” commented Kim.
Kim also scored in the Smokies lone shootout, a 4-3 win during the opening weekend of the regular season in Salmon Arm.
Meanwhile, the veteran winger is excited to be back on a line with Cash Carter.
“He’s a very hard nosed player, gets into the dirty areas, he compliments my game pretty well,” said Kim, who also feels fellow 20-year-old winger Zach Coutu is a good fit on that new trio.
“He sees the ice very well and he is a good play maker so we compliment each other really well,” Kim added.
The Smokies snapped a four-game losing streak with the victory over Sherwood Park and Kim called it a great relief.
“It’s a huge win,” Kim sighed.
“Especially with all the new guys coming in, it’s a big morale boost, I think we are going to keep winning,” commented a confident Kim, who says preparing for the post season will be a journey back to the basics.
“We are just going to try to take it day-by-day, our motto is no excuses, we have had a lot of ups and downs this year, but we are going to just keep grinding,” Kim concluded.
The Smokies lead third-place Salmon Arm by seven points and have a game in hand on the Silvertips. Trail has 11 games remaining in the regular season with a goal of securing second place and ensuring home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Trail travels this weekend to Sherwood Park and Cranbrook.
