The Westside Warriros had a bit more left in their gas tank than the Trail Smoke Eaters.
Shawn Hochhausen went coast-to-coast through a visibly tired Smokies defence and beat goalie Kiefer Smiley to give Westside a 5-4 overtime win last night in Game 4 of their BCHL Interior Division quarter-final at the Cominco Arena.
Hochhausen’s goal, with six minutes left in the first overtime, deadlocked the series at 2-2. The action shifts to the Okanagan for Game 5 on Thursday.
Game 6 goes Friday night in Trail at 7 p.m.
Paul Mailey, Ben Matthews, Logan Proulx and Jake Baker scored for Trail.
The Smokies took a 3-2 lead into the the third as Warriors stepped up their attack in the third.
But just 16 seconds after Westisde tied the game at 3-3, Baker snapped a shot that Boyle should have stopped to put Trail back on top, albeit not for long.
At the other end, Smiley was baling out his team time and time again as Warriors snuck in behind the defence.
Westside finally cashed in on one of those chances when Kyle Singleton slipped the puck past Smiley with five minutes to play in regulation time.
After struggling through the early stages of the second period, the Smokies turned the tide of the game in their favour in a matter of 55 seconds.
First Matthews was positioned perfectly to grab a rebound off a point shot from Sam Mellor to tie the game at 2-2 at the 7:25 mark.
Less than a minute later, the Smokies capitalized on a Warriors’ turnover in the neutral zone.
Mailey fed the puck to Adam Boytinck whose initial shot was stopped but Proulx jumped on the rebound and deposited into the wide open net to give Trail a one-goal lead heading into the third.
Westside held a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes thanks to a two-man advantage with eight minutes to play.
Prior to that the Warriors’ Michael King and Smokies captain Paul Mialey traded goal just 30 seconds apart.
But Westside took the lead into the second thanks to Singleton’s quick shot from the slot on the power play.