The Westside Warriors remain mathematically alive for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Interior Conference of the BCHL.
The Warriors broke open a tight game with four goals in the middle period Wednesday en route to a 7-2 thumping of the visiting Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
Connor Dempsey led the charge with a pair of power-play goals while linemate David Pope added a goal and two assists.
16-year-old rookie Brennan Clark had his first career multi-point night with a goal and an assist.
Josh Monk, Reid Simmonds and Ben Betker also scored for the Warriors who sit eight points out of a playoff spot with 11 games left in the regular season.
Warriors coach Rylan Ferster says from here on out the team has the philosophy that they're in the hunt until they're mathematically out.
"That's exactly how it is. I know you'll quote every cliche, one shift at a time, one game at a time but that's really how it is," says Ferster.
"We're a young team and our guys really play hard most nights and we get some chances. We're just going to keep doing that and worry about ourselves for the last few games."
As for Wednesday's effort, Ferster says they talked about coming out hard against the Silverbacks from the opening whistle, something they didn't do a week ago until they were behind the eight ball during a 5-2 loss in Salmon Arm.
"Even tonight we could have been behind too but I thought we stuck with it and Dwayne (Rodrigue) made some good saves for us. We only gave up two so that's pretty good for a young team like ours."
The teams were tied at 1-1 after 20 minutes before the Warriors really started to roll in the second.
Westside built up a 4-1 lead by the midway point of the second and never looked back.
The Warriors power-play also clicked scoring twice on two opportunities. They're now 3-3 dating back to Saturday's game against the Merritt Centennials.
They outshot Salmon Arm 45-35 over the course of the 60 minutes.
The Warriors now hit the road for four straight including a crucial four pointer Friday night in Chilliwack.
It's the first of four head-to-head games remaining against the Chiefs who, along with Vernon, occupy the final the final Interior Conference playoff spot.
Both the Chiefs and Vipers also hold two games in hand on the Warriors. Westside plays in Penticton Saturday.
"Every game just gets bigger and bigger for us," adds Ferster.
"We're in must win territory almost and that's how we have to approach the game. We've had some success against Chilliwack this year. We've been there twice and lost in overtime and tied."
Ferster says they'll try and kick start the weekend with a win in Chilliwack and go from there.
Check out The General’s Report for broadcaster Jon Zacks’ ongoing coverage of the Westside Warriors.
