Re/Max and Allstar will play for the Trail Commercial League Hockey championship on Thursday night at the Cominco Arena.
After taking top spot in the regular season, Re/Max was forced to play a deciding Game 3 on Sunday after splitting the first two matches of a best-of-three semifinal series with OK Tire last week. The Tire won the opening game 5-4 before Re/Max bounced back with a 5-1 victory in Game 2.
In the deciding match, the league’s top team would score four times in the second period to pull out a 6-3 victory and advance to the championship match.
Tied 3-3 with time winding down in the middle frame, former Trail Smoke Eater goaltender Paul Barclay fired in the winning goal on a setup from Dyne Parker. Gabe Gaudet would add an unassisted marker one minute later, and goalie Chris McIsaac would shut the door the rest of the way as Devyn Hill scored into an empty net to ice it in the third.
Gaudet scored twice and added an assist for Re/Max while Graham Proulx and Thomas Abenante netted the other markers for the realtors and Shane Drake set up all three goals for the Tire.
In the other TCHL playoff match up, Allstars dispatched Gericks in two straight games with 4-1 and 8-2 victories.
It will be a new team winning this year’s championship as last year’s TCHL champion, Arlington, missed the playoffs after a disappointing collapse in the final two months of play.
The TCHL final between Re/Max and Allstars goes Thursday at 7 p.m., admission is free.