VIDEO – It took five plus periods and 132 shots to determine game four's winner as Powell River defeated the Surrey Eagles 2-1 in triple overtime. Steven Schmidt deflected a point shot at 4:52 of the third overtime to secure the win and put Powell River up 3-1 in the best of seven series.
As they have throughout this series, the Kings scored first as Chad Niddery snuck one through St-Laurent on the power play at 13:02. Surrey responded quickly as Brandon Morley (Burnaby, BC. Merrimack) found a loose puck and buried home his second of the playoffs at 17:45. Surrey out shot Powell River 16-9 in the first frame.
This game would go back and forth and so evenly matched that the Kings outshot the Eagles 16-9 in the second period. Surrey controlled most of the play in the third and peppered Michael Garteig with 17 shots including numerous goal mouth scrambles, but the Eagles couldn’t jam it home.
The first overtime saw Robert Lindores (Port Alberni, BC) hit the cross bar and as the play went back the other way, Kings’ Matt Garbowsky rung it off the post. Eagles forward and MVP Brad McGowan left the game in the second overtime with an injury after being hit into the side boards.
Many of the 1,363 fans left by the time Schmidt ended the contest, but the remaining fans saw an epic game with two teams leaving it all on the ice. The game’s first star was Powell River Goalie Michael Garteig who lowered his playoff GAA to 1.96. Second star was Karel St-Laurent who made 66 of 68 saves and raised his playoff save percentage to 93.5 per cent.
Game five of the BCHL Coastal Conference Finals goes Thursday night in Powell River. Game time is 7 pm. If necessary, game six would be Friday night at South Surrey and game seven would be Saturday night back in Powell River.
Steven Schmidt deflected a point shot at 4:52 of the third overtime to secure the win and put Powell River up 3-1 in the best of seven series.
