Clayton Chessa scored the game winner 3:45 into the first overtime period Sunday as the Trail Smoke Eaters escaped Royal LePage Place with a 3-2 victory over the Westside Warriors.
The loss was the fourth straight for the Warriors.
Chessa took a nifty cross-ice feed from Nicholas Wong and beat Steven Racine with a low wrist shot from the mid slot to give the Smokies the extra point.
Craig Martin and Josh Roberts staked the Smokies to a 2-0 lead before the Warriors knew what hit them.
Martin beat starter James Leonard on the short side a minute in on a Smokies power-play, then Roberts made it 2-0 at 4:30 when he buried a juicy rebound from the right circle into a wide open net.
"It's something we're going to have to work on, our starts," says Warriors head coach Rylan Ferster.
"I'll take full responsibility for that."
The Warriors found their game midway through the first period and were finally rewarded when Shawn Hochausen notched his third of the season.
Travis Blanleil sped down the left wing on a two-on-one, blew by the defenceman and slid a perfect centering pass to Hochausen who re-directed the puck over a fallen Reed Vogt in the Smokies net.
The Warriors tied it 8:07 into the second period on a Warriors power-play.
Josh Monk's slapshot from the right point appeared to deflect off a Smokies stick and past Vogt, however, the goal was credited to Richard Vanderhoek, his fifth of the season.
After that, the game turned nasty.
Travis Blanleil left the game with what appeared to be a head injury after he was sucker punched by a Trail player during a scrum in the Smoke Eaters end.
Hocchausen picked up a major penalty for check from behind and a game misconduct after he drilled a Smokies player into the side boards.
During the ensuing melee, Blanleil appeared to be engaged with one Smoke Eaters player when a second blindsided him with a punch to the head.
Trail was not penalized for the sucker punch, although Ferster says the Warriors may send a copy of the tape into the league for further discipline.
"We'll certainly review it. We reviewed it once and it's certainly disturbing."
Following the major penalty, Ferster replaced Leonard with Racine in the Warriors net.
Leonard, acquired earlier in the week, was making his first start with the Warriors.
"Steve is pretty good at taking away the back door and taking things cross ice. On the power-play they're trying to throw things cross ice and we thought maybe he'd be able to take some stuff away back door," adds Ferster.
The Warriors had a chance to win it during the dying seconds of regulation time when Vanderhoek slid a perfect cross ice pass to Dru Morrison, however, Vogt stretched out his right pad and got just enough of the puck to keep it out.
Westside outshot the Smoke Eaters 35-28 on the night.
The Warriors will try to snap their current skid Tuesday when they play in Vernon. They play in Salmon Arm Friday before hosting the Penticton Vees Saturday.
Visit The General's Report for more on the Westside Warriors.
For high-quality pictures of last night's game from Alex Hill please visit www.imgr.ca
