The Trail Commercial Hockey League had to call Search and Rescue after an offensive avalanche buried the defence and goaltending in TCHL action last week, as teams combined for 54 goals in four games.
Surprisingly, it was fifth-place Gericks that emerged relatively unscathed, keeping its playoff hopes alive with a 7-4 victory over OK Tire on Sunday and a 10-4 drubbing of Allstar Thursday.
Gerick’s Brett Johnson set up Mike Turner who scored what proved to be the winner 20 minutes into the first period, to give Gerick’s a 5-0 lead over Allstar on Sunday.
With the wins and four games remaining in the regular season, Gericks moves to within four points of Tire and Arlington, currently tied for third spot with 28 points.
Eric Hill got the ball rolling for Gericks, scoring his 25th of the season five minutes in, before Steve Walker tallied two, and Travis Drake would make it 4-0 scoring his first of two on the night.
The Tire got on the board with 10 seconds remaining in the opening frame on a Kelly MacKay goal. But Mike Boisvert would make it 6-1 at the eight minute mark of the second, before Derek Chartres would cut the score to 6-2 one minute later. Drake would make it 7-2, and the Tire’s Justin Adrian and Darrin Williams would round out the scoring.
Parity seems to be rampant in the league as Allstar, after getting dumped by Gericks on Thursday, would rebound with a 14-4 demolition of Arlington on Sunday, three days after the Big A beat up on the league-leading Re/Max 7-4.
Kris Koshey and Evan MacKay picked up hat tricks for Allstar, and Ryan Baines had a five-point night (2G, 3A) in the 14-4 romp.
Pat Iannone had a goal and two assists for Arlington in the loss, but the former Kootenay Ice forward continues to lead the league in scoring as he also counted a point on six of seven goals (4G,2A) in the A’s 7-4 win over Re/Max on Thursday to give him 40 goals and 93 points on the season. Jeremy Robinson tallied four assists in the same game for Arlington, and is right behind Iannone in scoring with 20 goals and 82 points.
The teams resume play tonight with Allstar a chance to make up ground on Re/Max at 7:15 p.m., and Arlington fighting the OK Tire for third place at 8:30 p.m. On Sunday, Arlington plays Gericks at 2:15 and OK Tire battles Re/Max at 3:30 p.m.