Trail native Craig Martin and the Alberni Valley Bulldogs will have to battle the Victoria Grizzlies in a seventh and deciding game after the Grizzlies got goals 47 seconds apart from Mark McLellan and Jesse Schwartz in the second period to earn a 3-1 road win to tie the series at 3-3. The deciding Game 7 was played in Victoria Wednesday night but scores were unavailable at press time.
Bo Pieper’s goal just after the midway point of the second stood up as the winner for the Coquitlam Express in a 2-1, series-clinching victory over the visiting Prince George Spruce Kings. PG opened the scoring with Justin Rai’s tally but Ryan Rosenthal tied it less than five minutes later. Prince George could not convert on any of its six power-play chances while Gordie Defiel made 31 saves for the win.
Brendan Persley scored twice and set up the game-winning opening goal by Brett Mulcahy in a Vernon Vipers 5-0 win over the visiting West Kelowna Warriors. The victory puts Vernon into the Interior Division finals where they’ll play Penticton. Mulcahy’s goal at 11:27 of the first was all the offence the Snakes needed. Austin Smith made 29 saves for the shutout.
Former Trail Smoke Eater, Tyson Witala, scored late in the second and early in the third to lift the Langley Rivermen to a 6-1 road win over the Surrey Eagles to clinch the series for Langley. Evan Anderson, Viktor Dombrovskiy and Witala staked Langley to a 3-0 lead going to the third.
Danton Heinen got the lone Eagles goal with Austin Azurdia and Darien Craighead scoring the final Rivermen goals.
Langley hosts Coquitlam Friday in Game 1 of the Mainland finals. The game will be played at George Preston Arena.