The Moose Jaw Warriors scored twice in 47 seconds with their goalie pulled to force overtime Tuesday night.
The Prince Albert Raiders never recovered as Brayden Burke scored 19 seconds into overtime to give the Warriors a stunning 5-4 win at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert and stake Moose Jaw to a 2-1 series lead.
Comeback completed! @burkey____19 ends it 19 seconds into oooooovvvvvveeeeeerrrrrrttttttiiiimmmeeee for the @MJWARRIORS! 2-1 series lead! #MJvsPA #WHLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/Z7liyO8zqn
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 28, 2018
The Raiders’ fourth line scored with 2:40 left in the third period to give the home side a 4-2 lead. Justin Nachbaur’s goal on a two-on-two rush with Regan Nagy looked like the capper on a strong Raiders performance.
The Warriors, howeverm were not going to go quietly.
With goalie Brody Willms on the bench, Josh Brook scored on an end-to-end rush that finished with him tucking the puck between Ian Scott’s legs in the Raiders’ net with 1:37 left in the game.
With the net empty once more, Burke threw a puck on net and Scott could only kick it out to the high slot where Warriors captain Brett Howden roofed the rebound with 49.3 seconds left to tie the score and silence the 2,840 in attendance.
The Warriors nearly won the game in regulation as Jayden Halbgewachs got one of his best looks of the series, but failed to score.
Overtime picked up where regulation ended as Scott robbed Tanner Jeannot in close five seconds into overtime, but Jeannot was able to find Burke at the side of the net to end the game.
It is the second straight game in the series that the Raiders have lost in overtime after they won the opening game 5-3 in Moose Jaw.
Game 4 will be played Wednesday in Prince Albert.
The Raiders got off to a dream start as captain Curtis Miske scored on the first shift to give P.A. the lead 59 seconds later.
The Warriors tied the game thanks to some dogged work around the net by Ryan Peckford who was promoted to playing with Howden and Halbgewachs for the night. The Warriors reunited Burke, Jeannot and Justin Almeida who spent much of the year together and they caused a lot of problems for the Raiders defence.
The Warriors took a 2-1 lead when Burke scored the Warriors’ second power play goal of the series in the middle of the second period. At the time of the goal, the Warriors were out-shooting the Raiders 26-10 on the night.
The Raiders tied the game on Vojtech Budek’s second power play goal in as many games as his shot went through the screen of Brett Leason in front.
The Raiders took a 3-2 lead five minutes later when Jordy Stallard’s third of the series beat Willms from just inside the zone.
Scott finished with 40 saves. Willms made 17 saves in the win.
The Raiders were 1-for-5 on the power play and the Warriors were 1-for-4.
Miske and Stallard each had a goal and an assist.
Burke had three points and Howden had a goal and an assist and Kale Clague had two assists.
