A four-goal second period powered the Trail Smoke Eaters to a 7-2 home win and a 2-0 series lead over Salmon Arm.
Leading 2-1 after one on goals by Josh Laframboise and Connor Brown-Maloski, Trail got tallies from Laframboise, Korbyn Chabot, Carter Cochrane and Ross Armour to put themselves in command.
Mitch Barker had the final Trail tally in the third. Elijiah Barriga in the first and Jared Turcotte in the second were the Salmon Arm scorers. Linden Marshall made 34 saves for the win.
Stephan Seeger’s triple-overtime goal clinched a 5-4 Merritt Centennials road win over the West Kelowna Warriors that also put them up 2-0 in their series. Merritt led the game 4-0 at one point, getting goals from Tyler Ward and Michael Regush in the first, another from Ward in the second and Brett Jewell in the third. But West Kelowna rallied with four third-period goals in a little over 10 minutes with Parm Dhaliwal, Quin Foreman, Jake Harrison and Chase Dubois doing the damage. The goalies were unbeatable through 40 minutes of overtime but Seeger scored at 3:07 of triple-OT to win it. Jacob Berger made 63 saves for the win.
Andrew Dumaresque’s goal at 3:22 of overtime gave the Langley Rivemen a 3-2 road win over the Chilliwack Chiefs that evens their series 1-1. Ryan Barrow had the Rivermen up 1-0 after one but in the second, Chilliwack took the lead on goals by Powell Connor and Kale Kane on the power play. Zac Masson got the equalizer for Langley early in the third and Dumaresque won it early in OT. Bo Didur made 32 saves for the win while Mark Sinclair stopped 24 for Chilliwack.
Evan DeBrouwer made all 32 saves and the Nanaimo Clippers got a goal each period in a 3-0 road win over the Victoria Grizzlies that evens their series 1-1. Tristan Crozier got what would be the winner on the power play in the first, Matt Creamer scored on the man advantage in the second and Jamie Collins tacked on an empty-netter in the final minute of the third.
Tristan Mullin’s goal in the third was the winner for the Powell River Kings in a 4-3 home win that puts them up 2-0 in their series against the Cowichan Valley Capitals. Curtis McCarrick and Ben Berard each scored for the Kings in the first and Callum Volpe made it 3-0 in the second before the Caps got replies from Ben Verrall and Ayden MacDonald to get within one. Mullin’s goal early in the third proved necessary as George Sennott got one back for the Caps in the final frame but they couldn’t find the tying goal. Brian Wilson made 29 saves for the win.
Dakota Raabe and Jasper Weatherby scored in the second period to give the Wenatchee Wild the goals they’d need in a 4-1 home win over the Prince George Spruce Kings that puts the Wild up 1-0 in the series. Ben Brar got PG on the board in the third but Matt Baker replied with two of his own in the final frame to round out the Wild scoring. Anthony Yamnitsky made 24 saves for the win.
