It took nearly 120 minutes, but the Cranbrook Bucks have fought their way back into their first round best-of-seven series versus the Trail Smoke Eaters after winning game four Wednesday 7-6 in a triple overtime finish.
After battling to a stalemate for most of the first period, the Bucks managed to strike first. Blake Cotton got his big night started with a goal at 16:41 to put Cranbrook up 1-0. However, the lead would not last long as Trail’s Christian Kim was able to tie the game just thirty-five seconds later. The score remained 1-1 at intermission.
Second period action saw the two clubs trade quick goals again, with Trail gaining the advantage. Within the first 1:36 of the middle frame, Trail got goals from Judah Makway and Gryphon Bucci while Cranbrook added one from Shane Baker, giving Trail a 3-2 lead. The Smokies bumped their lead to 4-2 by way of Kim’s second tally of the evening, and that was followed by another Cranbrook goal from Sam Lyne to cut Trail’s lead to 4-3 at the forty minute mark.
Trail appeared to be running away with the game after adding back to back power play goals from Jack Kennedy and Jason Stefanek to go up 6-3. This appeared to put the game out of reach for the Bucks, but the Cranbrook club still had some fight left in them. Cranbrook began to mount a comeback with Sam Ranallo converting a 2-on-1 to cut Trail’s lead to 6-4 just before the halfway mark of the third period. The Bucks earned a power play in the waning minutes, and Bryce Sookro tallied at 15:23 to put his club within one goal of securing the tie. Time continued to tick away, but the Bucks continued to press. They forced a sequence near the Trail net with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, and Blake Cotton hit paydirt off a scramble deep in the zone to tie the game 6-6 with 1:45 remaining in regulation. The 6-6 deadlock held intact through the third period buzzer, sending the two teams to overtime for the second time in the series.
The Bucks had a decisive edge in play through overtime, but could not solve Trail’s Teagan Kendrick through two twenty-minute overtime sessions despite firing 26 shots. In the third overtime, with both clubs showing obvious fatigue, Matthew Gilmore began a drive to the Trail net and fed a pass to Cotton who tapped the disc past Kendrick for an improbable comeback 7-6 overtime win.
Wednesday’s game four victory puts the series at a 2-2 tie, the Bucks outshot Trail 73-53. On special teams, the Bucks went 1/4 on the power play and 3/5 on the penalty kill.
Game five is Friday in Trail, one team will have a chance to claim the series in game six Sunday in Cranbrook.
Buck Tracks:
- OT hero Blake Cotton nets a hattrick
- 1g, 2a for Bryce Sookro
