The Rex Hotel Red Army clutched victory from the jaws of Firebird to remain tied for second place with OK Tire in Trail Commercial Hockey League action last week.
Coming off a 7-5 win over the Arlington Thursday in which Jim Maniago netted a hat trick and Jason Proulx and Dan Devito had four-point nights, the Big Red Machine roared back from a 3-1 deficit to hold on to a tenuous 4-3 victory at the Cominco Arena Sunday.
The Birds opened the scoring four minutes into the first on a nice individual effort by league-leading scorer Craig Claire. However, Rex would tie it up on Wayne Salakin’s first of two goals on the night.
Eric Hill put Firebird up one late in the first period and Mike Turner would extend the lead to 3-1 early in the second frame.
Cue the comeback.
Salakin converted a pass from Tyler Bruce to cut the lead and, with five minutes left in the period, Bruce would tie it.
With just over two minutes remaining in the second, the Rex’s Trevor Johnson beat goalie Mike Kooznetsoff for the go-ahead and eventual winning goal.
But things looked good for the Birds when the Rex’s Tim Boucher took a holding penalty with less than two minutes to go in the third period.
Firebird launched everything they had at the Army net but puck-stopper Tim Wylie held his ground to preserve the win.
In other action, Re/Max goalie Chris McIssac earned the shutout in a 4-0-statement win over OK Tire on Thursday. The realtors were led by Gabe Gaudet who scored the final three goals for the natural hat trick.
In Sunday’s late action, the Tire rebounded from the loss to Re/Max to double up the Arlington 6-3.
OK Tire jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Big A’s Mike Broyd scored on a power play and 90 seconds later the Arlington cut the lead to 3-2.
But Tire’s Jadon Porterfield replied on a power play and Shaun Venturini completed his hat trick to put the Tire up 5-2.
The teams exchanged goals in the third, with Porterfield ending a four-point night with an assist on the final goal. The Tire’s Shane Drake also had three assists on the evening.
Trail Commercial League action continues tonight with the Arlington taking on Re/Max at 7:15 p.m. and Firebird versus OK Tire at 8:30 p.m.