The Trail Smoke Eaters opened the BCHL regular season with back-to-back losses at Cominco Arena, falling to the Langley Rivermen and Vernon Vipers.
Trail opened its season Friday night with a 2-1 loss to Langley despite outshooting the Rivermen 27-17.
After a scoreless first period, Caden Stoltz gave the Smoke Eaters the lead 4:12 into the second, with Colton Whitfield and Roberts Polis picking up assists.
Trail carried the 1-0 advantage into the third before Langley struck twice in just over a minute.
Sam Giangualano tied the game at 5:02 before Josh Frenette scored what proved to be the winner at 6:08.
Smoke Eaters goaltender Marek Schlenker stopped 15 of 17 shots, while Langley’s Karsen Chartier turned aside 26 of 27.
Neither team capitalized on the power play, with Trail going 0-for-2 and Langley 0-for-3.
The Smoke Eaters returned to Cominco Arena Saturday but couldn’t find the scoresheet in a 4-0 loss to the Vernon Vipers.
Mykolas Skadauskas opened the scoring for Vernon at 15:03 of the first period before Jed Lake and Ben Trebicky extended the lead to 3-0 in the second.
Aaron Zulinick added a power-play goal midway through the third to complete the scoring.
Trail again held the edge in shots, outshooting Vernon 28-25, but Vipers goaltender Samuel DiBlasi stopped all 28 shots for the shutout. Smoke Eaters netminder Chayse Johnson made 21 saves.
The Smoke Eaters finished the opening weekend with an 0-2 record, scoring once on 55 shots and going 0-for-4 on the power play.
The Smoke Eaters head to Cranbrook to face the Bucks on Saturday, Sept. 26.
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