The Trail Commercial Hockey League’s regular season champs Re/Max Realty needed all they had to get by the pesky Firebird on Sunday, and win their best-of-three series to advance to the final against OK Tire.
It took all three games for the Realtors to dispose of the fourth-seeded Firebird in TCHL semifinal playoff action earlier this week.
In a first-team-to-four-points playoff, Re/Max shutout Firebird in Game 1, 3-0, but the Bird would come back in Game 2, scoring twice in the final frame to tie it 3-3 and force Game 3.
After a scoreless first period, league-scoring champ Graham Proulx put Re/Max on the board on a nice set up from Luke Russell and Dave Eccles.
But Firebird replied when Eric Hill beat goalie Chris McIsaac early in the third to tie it 1-1. That’s all that would get by McIsaac as he shut the door, allowing Proulx to net the game winner 4:34 into the final frame for the 2-1 victory.
In the other semifinal, OK Tire faced off against the Rex Red Army and rolled over the number-three seed in two close games.
In Thursday’s 4-3 victory, two goals from an unlikely source buoyed the Tire to the win.
Reliable point-man Kevin Chartres burst out of his defensive shell and pumped in a pair of goals, while Shane Drake and Kyle Boutin rounded out the scoring. Brady Glover, Wayne Salakin and Jason Proulx scored for the Rex.
In Game 2, the Tire’s Justin Adrain scored his second of the night to break a 1-1 tie 21:00 into the second period to lift the Tire to a 3-1 victory and a berth into Thursday’s final. Drake added an insurance marker four-minutes into the third.
The one-game, winner-takes-all final between Re/Max and OK Tire drops the puck at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at the Cominco Arena.
