OK Tire grabbed the outright lead in the Trail Commercial Hockey League with a 5-3 victory over the Arlington last week, while Allstar and Re/Max couldn’t solve anything, skating to a 3-3 draw.
The Tire scored three goals in the third period including the winner from Shane Drake with 2:44 to play to put the Tire in top spot in the TCHL with a 4-1-1 record.
Drake notched his third of the season on a pretty set up from Troy Palmer and Kyle Boutin, beating Big A’s venerable netminder Eric Volpatti for a 4-2 lead.
The game was scoreless until late in the first period when Al McMartin converted a set up from a quick and creative Matt Proulx to put Arlington up 1-0. The Tire evened things up 55 seconds into the middle frame when Justin Adrian scored his third of the season with the assist going to Joel Graf.
However, just over three minutes later, Luke McLean wired a pass from Pat Iannone to give the A a 2-1 lead.
But the lead disappeared at the 6:40 mark of the second period when Palmer tied it, blasting a Kelly MacKay offering to record his first goal of the season.
Then, just 11 seconds into the third, Peter Sheets gave OK Tire its first lead of the game, and two minutes later Drake would net the winner. Graf added an insurance marker for the Tire with 74 seconds remaining, while Dave Como netted one more for the Arlington with 44 seconds left, as the Big A fell to 2-4 on the season.
In the only other tilt of the week, Allstar salvaged a point against Re/Max when Tim Boucher scored with 1:19 left on the clock to tie Re/Max 3-3.
Allstar jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Scott Morrisseau’s seventh goal of the season, but Re/Max replied when former Smoke Eater goalie Paul Barclay beat Cody Deadmarsh in the Allstar net to tie it at 12:09 of the first period.
Re/Max’s Justin Bedin scored a pretty goal on a solo effort to put his team up 2-1 with 9:13 to play, but Scott Davis would draw the Allstar even once more, wiring one by Chris McIsaac at 19:48 of the second. The game would stay even, until the 6:29 mark of the third when Dyne Parker finished off a nice pass from Barclay to give Re/Max a short-lived 3-2 lead.
The TCHL’s next action goes tonight when OK Tire takes on Arlington at 7:15 p.m. and Gericks faces Allstar at 8:30 p.m. at the Cominco Arena. Sunday games will see OK Tire face off against Gericks at 2:15 p.m. and Re/Max versus Arlington at 3:30 p.m.
