The West Kelowna Warriors' stayed in the race for three and they can thank Prince George minor hockey product Liam Blackburn for making sure that happened.
They came back from a 3-0 deficit to force overtime against the Chilliwack Chiefs Wednesday night in West Kelowna.
But forward Jordan Kawaguchi won it for the Chiefs when he took a long pass of the boards and beat Matthew Greenfield for the winner, 59 seconds into overtime.
Blackburn, a New Hampshire University recruit, set up linemate Kyler Hope in front of the Chiefs net for the tying goal with 21.9 seconds left and Warriors goalie Greenfield on the bench for the extra skater. Hope had reduced the deficit to 3-2 on a wraparound, 8:50 into the third period, scoring on Chiefs goalie Aidan Pelino.
The Warriors were down by three when Jake LeBrun connected on a power play late in the second period on a setup from Blackburn. LeBrun, a P.G. native, joined the Warriors in January in a trade from the Prince George Spruce Kings.
Two other former Spruce Kings - centre Taylor Allan and defenceman Rylan Bechtel (on a power play) scored for the Chiefs in the first period Wednesday. Kohen Olischefski opened the scoring for Chilliwack 8:39 into the game.
The Warriors outshot the Chiefs 29-23.
It was the second win in four games of the third round for Chilliwack, while West Kelowna still has just one win in three games. If the Nanaimo Clippers beat the Warriors Friday in Nanaimo, the Clippers will lock up a berth and home ice in the BCHL final, a best-of-seven series.
Once one team achieves three wins in the double round-robin tournament, the other two teams will play each other in each other's building until one of those teams gets its third win.
The Warriors and Chiefs meet again Sunday in Chilliwack.
