Through 40 minutes of game four, the Castlegar Rebels were in tough with the Spokane Braves.
The last 20 minutes however, were dominated by the visiting team as the Rebels pounded the Braves home mesh for four unanswered goals in a 6 – 1 win.
The Rebels now have a 3 -1 series lead and will be back on home ice Thursday, Feb. 28.
Braves goalie Matt Zenzola was handed an unsportsmanlike at 5:02 of the third, but by that point Castlegar had things well in hand.
After the first two games, the Castlegar Rebels could have been forgiven for thinking they would cruise through their series against the Spokane Braves.
After outscoring the Braves 18 – 1 in the opening two games, they suddenly met a more determined team in game three when the Braves won 2 – 1 in overtime.
Deep into the second period of game four it was again a tight scoring affair, until Jamie Vlanich got two in short order. Matt Reed and Brett Leidl assisted on the first while Brenden Heinrich and Diego Bartlett got on the score sheet for the second.
Castlegar had the edge in shots throughout the evening with the final shot clock showing 68 – 37.
The penalty box saw almost as much action as the shot clock, too. A dozen were called in the second, threatening to take momentum from both sides.
The Rebels Darren Medeiros took a five minute major and a game misconduct for checking from behind while Braves defenceman Thomas McNevin got two minutes and a game for a similar infraction.
Spokane was able to climb back into it at 16:44 of the third when Hayden Boring got help from Paxton Bell and Timothy Schmidt to pull within one.
At 6:46 of the third, however, the Rebels Diego Bartlett got one past Matt Zenzola and the Rebels never looked back.
Three more unanswered goals from Stuart Walton, Braydon Horcoff and Travis Wellman came in the last five minutes of play. Assisting on those goals were Bryan Lubin, Erik Alden and Stuart Walton.
