The Westside Warriors went to overtime for a second straight night in Trail and this time the visitors scored to tie the series 2-2.
Shawn Hochhausen's unassisted winner 13:11 into the first overtime was a beautiful end-to-end rush that finished the game 5-4 in favour of Westside. The rookie forward, flying at high speed, walked around everybody before tucking the puck away to close out the game in heroic fashion.
The teams exchanged leads several times with Westside holding a 2-1 edge after the first and Trail a 3-2 margin after two.
Michael King registered his second goal of the series rifling a wrist shot past Smiley from the high slot five minutes into the first stanza. Then 24 seconds later Paul Mailey, playing in his 300th BCHL career game, scored to tie it quickly.
The Warriors caught a welcomed break just past the halfway point of the first when they got a 5-on-3 advantage. Kyle Singleton received a perfect slot pass from Alex Grieve and snapped a shot off the crossbar and in to make it 2-1.
Ben Matthews and Logan Proulx scored 1:05 apart in the second to put the Smokies up 3-2 after forty.
Tyler Brickler tied the game for Westside in the third after an amazing give-and-go with defenseman Tom Kroshus. Brickler received the pass as a streaked through the slot and he swiftly deked backhand and roofed to make it 3-3.
Sixteen seconds before Jake Baker put Trail up 4-3 on an innocent looking slap shot from just inside the blue-line. Trail only mustered 3 shots in the third while Westside dominated the frame in shots with 18.
Kyle Singleton picked up his second tally and forced OT with just more than five minutes left, eventually setting up Hochhausen's heroics.
Westside outshot Trail 48-28 and went 1-for-3 on the power-play, while registering 80 percent on the penalty-kill in five tries.
Each team gets a day off on Wednesday before going to battle again this Thursday (March 3rd) at Royal LePage Place.
Game time is 7pm.
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